Is Treatment with Ibogaine Superior to Methadone Therapy?
The 1990s will forever be remembered as a strange era for mental health care and addiction in the United States. This was the decade of "heroin chic," which resulted in a shift from injecting opiates to abusing pharmaceuticals such as oxycodone and fentanyl. Plus, this was when relentless marketing of certain prescription medications brought on the opioid crisis. It was also around this time that the “psychedelic renaissance” emerged among American mental health professionals, and substances such as ibogaine were once again brought to the attention of researchers. Three decades into the opioid crisis and psychedelic renaissance, the annual rate of fatal opioid overdoses has increased significantly. Clearly, there’s an urgent need to open more methadone clinics, but some addiction recovery specialists argue ibogaine therapy would be a smart alternative.
Different Therapeutic Approaches
Chemically speaking, ibogaine and methadone are worlds apart, but it would be appropriate to say both aim to eliminate the terrible cravings many patients experience when they stop taking opioids. Methadone accomplishes this through a modulating regime of tapered doses. Ibogaine does it all at once through a flood dose that presents an intense hallucinatory period as a main side effect or as a mechanism of action. Methadone has some analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties that can also alleviate common symptoms reported by opioid addicts in recovery. Ibogaine has strong antidepressant properties that can go a long way in terms of treating chemical dependence.
Risks of Ibogaine & Methadone Therapy
Even though ibogaine is a botanical extract and methadone is a synthetic opioid, both are pharmaceutical products with separate indications and contraindications as well as effects and side effects. Both are psychoactive substances, and their therapeutic use should be carefully prescribed and administered. Though both are reasonably safe, ibogaine can be cardiotoxic for some patients, and methadone can create a secondary dependence even worse than the first one. In terms of mental health conditions, neither is recommended for patients with schizophrenia, but methadone tends to be more problematic among patients who live with depression.
The Antidepressant Advantage of Ibogaine
From a mental health perspective, ibogaine appears to be a more sensible treatment than methadone. In recent years, laboratory research has shown ibogaine is an excellent selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) that works more efficiently than Paxil or Prozac during the hallucinatory phase. Pharmaceutical scientists who worked on the Prozac project during the late 1980s say they wish this kind of research had been available during that time. In fact, the anti-addictive mechanism of action of ibogaine is now believed to derive from SSRI interactions with specific opioid receptors. For people who choose ibogaine treatment, Mexico is one country where this type of treatment is legally available.
Expert Opinions on Ibogaine vs. Methadone
Dr. Deborah Mash, director of the Brain Endowment Bank at the University of Miami, is one of many neurologists who fully support the use of ibogaine over methadone. Dr. Kenneth Alper, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at New York University School of Medicine, has spent years advocating in favor of ibogaine for opioid addiction recovery. These two scientists point out that of the small group of plants with anti-addiction properties, ibogaine is the safest and most effective. It’s important to note that methadone and ibogaine only work to alleviate severe withdrawal symptoms that may result in relapse. If there’s only anxiety with no cravings, other therapeutic methods would be more appropriate.
Recovering from drug addiction is neither quick nor easy, and long-term continuing therapy is essential for a complete and lasting recovery. For example, ibogaine treatment may serve as a useful detoxification tool by interrupting the substance abuse and addiction cycle, but people who go to ibogaine clinics will continue to need behavioral therapy and other forms of addiction treatment to maintain long-lasting sobriety. A variety of factors, such as your age, medical or psychological conditions, and history of drug use, will affect the type of long-term care you need. Along with physicians and psychologists, some potential resources for continuing addiction treatment include counselors, clergy members, and social workers.