Barrow Neurological Institute has received a $5 million grant from the Arizona Department of Health Services to launch a Phase 1/2 clinical trial testing ibogaine as a potential treatment for persistent symptoms linked to traumatic brain injury. The planned study is among the most closely watched investigations of the psychoactive compound in neurological medicine, bringing a substance long associated with psychedelic therapy and addiction treatment into a controlled research program focused on brain injury. Researchers expect to enroll the first participant in 2027.
The trial will investigate adults living with chronic symptoms after traumatic brain injury, a condition that can affect memory, attention, mood, sleep, balance, and emotional regulation long after the initial injury. According to Susan Criswell, Barrow’s chief medical officer for clinical research and a co-investigator, approximately half of people with traumatic brain injuries do not achieve complete recovery or continue to experience symptoms six months after the event. Existing treatments can address individual problems, but few therapies target the broad network of neurological and psychiatric consequences that may follow TBI.
Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid derived primarily from the roots and bark of the West African shrub Tabernanthe iboga. Its effects are pharmacologically complex rather than attributable to a single receptor. Ibogaine interacts with several neurotransmitter systems, including pathways involving serotonin, dopamine, and opioid signaling. It is also metabolized in the body into noribogaine, a compound that remains active for an extended period and may contribute substantially to ibogaine’s effects on mood, cognition, and behavior. Scientists are still working to determine which mechanisms could be beneficial after neurological injury.
Interest in ibogaine has accelerated following small open-label studies involving military veterans and other people with trauma-related conditions. Those investigations have reported improvements in post-traumatic stress symptoms, cognitive performance, and quality of life after treatment. However, open-label studies do not include a placebo comparison, and participants and researchers may be influenced by expectations. The Barrow trial is designed to address that limitation through a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled structure, allowing investigators to distinguish a drug effect from spontaneous recovery, psychological expectation, or other factors.
The study is expected to include 40 participants with chronic TBI symptoms. Half will receive ibogaine and half will receive a placebo, with neither participants nor the clinical team knowing the assignment during the main evaluation period. Standardized neurological, psychiatric, and quality-of-life assessments will be used to measure changes in symptoms. Because a Phase 1/2 study emphasizes both safety and early signals of efficacy, investigators will also monitor vital signs, neurological function, cognition, mood, and other clinical measures throughout the treatment process.
Researchers plan to examine whether reported improvements correspond to measurable physical or functional changes in the brain and body. The project will involve Barrow’s Neuro Analytics Center, which is expected to contribute advanced analytical approaches to clinical and neurological data. Additional collaborators from Arizona State University include Holly Lisanby, founding dean of the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Mechanical Engineering, and neuroscientists Candace Lewis and Sarah Mennenga from the School of Life Sciences. Their participation reflects the study’s multidisciplinary design, combining clinical neurology, psychiatry, neuroscience, and quantitative analysis.
The trial will also confront important safety questions. Ibogaine can produce intense psychoactive effects, including altered perception, impaired coordination, nausea, and changes in heart rhythm. Reports of ibogaine-associated cardiac complications have raised particular concern because the compound and its metabolites may interfere with electrical conduction in the heart, potentially prolonging the QT interval and increasing the risk of dangerous arrhythmias. A carefully monitored hospital-based protocol, rigorous screening, and continuous assessment will therefore be essential if the treatment is to be evaluated responsibly in people with neurological injury.
Anna Burke, a neuropsychiatrist and chair of dementia research at Barrow, will serve as principal investigator. Barrow physician-scientists Michael T. Lawton, Susan Herman, Chia-Ling Phuah, and Susan Criswell will participate as co-investigators. The team’s work will examine whether ibogaine can influence the interconnected biological systems affected by TBI, including neural circuits involved in stress responses, executive function, emotional processing, and the regulation of arousal. These systems can remain disrupted even when conventional imaging appears normal.
Lawton, who is also president and chief executive officer of Barrow, described the project as part of a broader effort to understand the relationship between brain activity and the mind. The institute is expanding beyond traditional neurology and neurosurgery to investigate how neural circuits generate perception, cognition, and behavior, and how pharmacological interventions might alter those processes. For now, the ibogaine trial remains an investigation rather than a proven therapy. Its results will depend on recruitment, safety findings, objective outcome measures, and successful replication, but the study could provide one of the clearest tests yet of whether a psychedelic compound has a place in the treatment of long-term brain injury.
Subject of Research: Ibogaine as a potential treatment for chronic symptoms associated with traumatic brain injury and other neurological disorders.
Web References: https://barrowneuro.org/ ; https://www.barrowneuro.org/barrow-neuro-analytics-center/ ; https://www.asu.edu/ ; https://medicine.asu.edu/ ; https://sols.asu.edu/
Keywords: ibogaine, traumatic brain injury, TBI, neurological disorders, psychedelic medicine, clinical trial, placebo-controlled study, neuroscience, PTSD, brain injury, Barrow Neurological Institute, Arizona Department of Health Services
