O Uso da ibogaína no manejo da dependência de drogas no Brasil

Four Brazilian treatment programs that use ibogaine, a psychedelic derived from the African iboga plant, were studied through participant observation and in-depth interviews with 12 patients and one worker from each site. Patients' addiction experiences involved compulsion, unpleasant bodily sensations, recurring thoughts about use, and functional use to manage anxiety or stress, leading some to abandon life projects. After ibogaine, participants reported difficult body sensations, visions, and memories during the acute effect. Over the following year, they described reduced compulsion, absence of desire to use drugs, greater pleasure in daily activities, and a global feeling of renewal, which helped them achieve a life without problematic drug use habits.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This research qualitatively investigated four treatments for addiction currently in Brazi that use ibogaine as the main tool in the process.Ibogaine is a substance derived from an African plant, Tabernanthe iboga, traditionally used in its region of origin and which leads to intense changes in physical and psychic sensations, considered a psychedelic.Before entering the field, an integrative review on the use of iboga and ibogaine and a discussion on the different perspectives on drug addiction in contemporary times were made, focusing on the use of drugs as a habit.From the participant observation in two treatment sites and in-depth interviews with 12 patients and one worker from each of the four locations, the treatment methods and the experience lived by the patients were described, seeking to answer: How do the treatments happen?What is the meaning of the use of ibogaine in the treatment in each context?How is the experience lived by the patients and how is it used by the patient in his treatment trajectory in the year after ibogaine?We sought to interview patients every 3 months for up to one year, to monitor perceptions about the effects of treatment and to develop their trajectories.The collected materials (transcript of the in-depth interviews and the field notebook) were analyzed based on existential phenomenology, using Dulce Critelli's "Analytic of Meaning" approach.The participants' experiences of addiction went mainly through compulsion, unpleasant bodily sensations, recurring thoughts about the use and some uses as functional to deal with anxiety or stress.These aspects led them to avoid the drug user's way of life and, in the longest trajectories, to abandon life projects.Regarding ibogaine, during the acute effect, participants reported difficult body sensations, accelerated thinking, visions, dreams and memories.During the twelve months after treatment, participants reported a change in the pattern of thinking about drug use, an absence of desire to use drugs, an absence of unpleasant bodily sensations, greater pleasure in daily activities, reduced compulsion, change in the pattern of use of other substances and a global feeling of renewal.These effects were used by users in their post-treatment trajectories in order to more easily achieve a way of life without the set of habits associated with problematic drug use.