In a small study of 22 military veterans with traumatic brain injury, a single treatment with magnesium-ibogaine was associated with changes in brain structure one month later. Brain scans showed an average reduction in predicted brain age of 1.3 years, increased thickness in 11 cortical regions, and volume expansion in 8 subcortical regions. While the authors note that the imaging technique can also reflect nonstructural changes, the overall pattern of results is consistent with neuroplastic change.
Ibogaine treatment in 30 male Special Operations Forces veterans with traumatic brain injury led to gradual increases in resting-state regional cerebral blood flow in cortical, limbic, and striatal brain regions, along with widespread changes in functional connectivity across multiple neural networks. The magnitude of blood flow changes in the left insula and left anterior cingulate cortex correlated with improvements in TBI-related disability symptoms. These findings suggest ibogaine may reorganize functional connections in the brain, with persisting metabolic changes in paralimbic regions potentially underlying its therapeutic effects, though larger controlled studies are needed to validate these initial results.