Differential effects of ibogaine on behavioural and dopamine sensitization to cocaine.

Ibogaine, given to rats 19 hours before a cocaine challenge, reversed a key brain change caused by repeated cocaine use: the sensitized dopamine response in the nucleus accumbens. While ibogaine did not alter the dopamine increase from a single cocaine dose, it eliminated the amplified dopamine release that normally occurs in cocaine-sensitized animals. This effect on neuroadaptation may underlie ibogaine's proposed anti-addictive properties.

Study at a glance

Abstract

To investigate a possible basis for the proposed anti-addictive property of ibogaine, the effects of ibogaine (40 mg/kg, i.p., 19 h earlier) on the expression of sensitization induced by cocaine were investigated. Ibogaine pretreatment potentiated the increase in the stereotypic effects of a cocaine challenge (20 mg/kg) in both sensitized (5 x 15 mg/kg, i.p.) and acutely treated rats. However, while ibogaine pretreatment did not significantly alter the dopamine response in the nucleus accumbens to acute cocaine, it abolished the expression of cocaine-induced dopamine sensitization. This result demonstrates that ibogaine pretreatment can reverse one of the neuroadaptations produced by chronic cocaine administration, an effect that may contribute to its putative anti-addictive property.