After a combined ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment, Special Operations veterans reported improvements in PTSD, depression, and anxiety at one month, with signs of lasting benefit to six months.
A 2023 study collected survey data from male Special Operations veterans who received a combined ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment in Mexico for trauma-related problems.
This study collected before-and-after surveys from 86 male Special Operations veterans who received a combined ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment at a program in Mexico. A month later, veterans reported improvements across PTSD, depression, anxiety, sleep, thinking, and life satisfaction, with a signal that gains persisted to six months. The effect sizes were modest-to-moderate. Because this was an observational program evaluation with no comparison group and relied on self-report from veterans who sought the treatment out, it can't establish that the drugs caused the change — the authors call for controlled research.
This open-label observational program evaluation surveyed 86 male trauma-exposed Special Operations Forces veterans who underwent consecutive ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment in Mexico, with self-report measures at baseline and one, three, and six months. At one month there were statistically significant improvements in PTSD (d=0.41), depression (d=0.28), anxiety (d=0.28), insomnia (d=0.35), post-concussive symptoms (d=0.39), life satisfaction, psychological flexibility, and cognition, with a durability signal to six months.
The breadth of improvement is notable, but the effect sizes are modest-to-moderate, not large, and the design is weak: an uncontrolled, self-selected, self-report program evaluation with no comparison group, so placebo, expectancy, and the surrounding therapeutic context cannot be separated from any drug effect. The sample is exclusively male Special Operations veterans who sought treatment abroad, limiting generalizability. The authors explicitly call for controlled research.
This extends an earlier retrospective survey of a similar Special Operations program that reported large reductions in suicidal ideation, PTSD, depression, and anxiety (Davis et al., 2020). A separate observational study of magnesium-ibogaine in Special Operations veterans with traumatic brain injury reported improvements at one month (Cherian et al., 2024). No randomized controlled trial of ibogaine in veterans has yet been published.
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