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Psychiatric disorders

An ancient psychedelic for traumatic brain injury

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  • 2024
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From Nature Medicine

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In military veterans with traumatic brain injury, treatment with ibogaine plus magnesium led to dramatic clinical improvements and a favorable safety profile; further studies with state-of-the art safety monitoring will be crucial to unlocking the potential benefits of this psychedelic compound.

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Fig. 1: Ibogaine plus magnesium treatment for traumatic brain injury.

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Acknowledgements

Disclaimers: The opinions and assertions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Uniformed Services University, the Department of Defense, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc., or other government agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Military Traumatic Brain Injury Initiative, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    David L. Brody

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH), BWH Center for Brain/Mind Medicine, BWH Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Boston, MA, USA

    Shan H. Siddiqi

Authors
  1. David L. Brody
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  2. Shan H. Siddiqi
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Correspondence to David L. Brody.

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Competing interests

D.L.B.: employee of the US Department of Defense. Research currently funded by Department of Defense. Holds equity in Inner Cosmos LLC. Receives royalties from sales of Concussion Care Manual (Oxford Univ. Press) and honoraria from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher of the Journal of Neurotrauma, for services as editor-in-chief. Performs consulting for Pfizer Inc., Intellectual Ventures, Signum Nutralogix, Kypha Inc., Sage Therapeutics, iPerian Inc., Navigant, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals (Eli Lilly & Co.), the St. Louis County Public Defender, the United States Attorney’s Office, the St. Louis County Medical Examiner, GLG and Stemedica. None of these entities were directly involved in the present work. S.H.S.: owner of intellectual property involving the use of brain connectivity to target transcranial magnetic stimulation, scientific consultant for Magnus Medical, performs investigator-initiated research funding from Neuronetics and Brainsway, receives speaking fees from Brainsway and Otsuka (for PsychU.org) and is a shareholder in Brainsway (publicly traded) and Magnus Medical (not publicly traded). None of these entities were directly involved in the present work.

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Brody, D.L., Siddiqi, S.H. An ancient psychedelic for traumatic brain injury. Nat Med 30, 342–343 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02759-w

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