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Conference Objectives.

 

Ibogaine is an indole alkaloid derived from the bark of the root of the African shrub Tabernanthe iboga, which has a history of use as a medicinal and ceremonial agent in West Central Africa. which has been alleged to have anti-addictive properties. The major published scientific evidence for ibogaine's effectiveness includes of reduced drug self administration and withdrawal in animals, and case reports in humans. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has given significant support to animal research, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved phase 1 dose escalation studies. As a naturally occurring plant alkaloid, on a patent that is close to expiration, and a mechanism of action that is unknown, ibogaine has not been attractive to the pharmaceutical industry and remains a quintessential orphan drug development project. This leaves the academic community in the public sector with a crucial role in research on ibogaine.

From a pharmacologic standpoint, ibogaine is interesting because it appears to have a novel mechanism of action that is different from other existing pharmacotherapeutic approaches to addiction. A major objective of this proposed conference will include an in depth series of presentations and discussions on ibogaine's possible mechanism(s) of action, as well as a focus on safety, toxicity and pharmacokinetic issues. The question of ibogaine's mechanism of action is important because its ultimate significance may not lie in clinical treatment with ibogaine per se, but as a paradigm for understanding the neurobiology of addiction as well as the development of new treatments.

Much research on ibogaines' mechanism of action has focused on the modulation of glutamate transmission, which is a topic of considerable current interest and programmatic emphasis not only to NIDA, but across many of the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health. Opioid dependence is the indication for which addicts have most commonly sought ibogaine treatment, and the focus of a large proportion of published research on evidence of efficacy in animals. Ibogaine is not a substitution therapy, such as methadone. Ibogaine has activity at a variety of different receptors in the brain, and its effects may result from complex interactions between multiple neurotransmitter systems. The reported evidence of efficacy of ibogaine in multiple drug dependence syndromes raises the possibility suggested by NIDA Director Alan Leshner (Leshner, 1997) of targeting "common effects that may underlie common properties of all addictions." There is evidence to suggest that ibogaine treatment might result in the "resetting" or "normalization" of neuroadaptations related to sensitization or tolerance.

Of interest is the advent of a distinctive unofficial treatment network involving international addict self-help movements, and lay providers of ibogaine treatment, or "treatment guides." The current ibogaine scene involves the use of a schedule 1 substance, and is an appropriate topic of drug abuse research. In the present era of growing patient driven interest in "alternative medicine", an awareness of why individuals chose to use ibogaine could be useful in accessing hidden populations presently unavailable to more conventional treatment. An understanding of expectations and cultural beliefs about the ibogaine treatment experience could be useful in optimizing the clinical milieu and interpersonal dynamics of present conventional treatment settings, or of future treatment settings if ibogaine or a congener ever receive official approval. From a social and ethnographic perspective, the present ibogaine subculture of the US and Europe may have interesting parallels to the centuries older, sacramental context of the use of Eboga in Africa.

 

 

Topics and Problems to be Addressed: Background, Significance and Questions for Discussion.

Sessions 1 and 2: Mechanisms of Action I and II:

Receptor Activities: Ibogaine may represent a new approach to the neurobiology of addiction, and appears to have a novel mechanism of action that is different from other existing pharmacotherapeutic approaches to addiction. Ibogaine does not appear to be a conventional dopamine or opioid agonist or antagonist, or an amine re-uptake inhibitor and is not a substitution therapy, such as methadone (Glick and Maisonneuve, 1998; Popik et al., 1995; Popik and Glick, 1996; Popik and Skolnick, 1999). Ibogaine has significant affinities for multiple binding sites within the central nervous system, and its effects may result from complex interactions between multiple neurotransmitter systems. Ibogaine has apparently significant activity at N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), nicotinic, and kappa and mu opioid, and sigma receptors (Glick and Maisonneuve, 1998; Sershen et al., 1997). Interest has been focused on NMDA antagonism as one possible mechanism of action with particular relevance to a putative effect on opioid withdrawal (Chen et al., 1996; Glick and Maisonneuve, 1998; Layer et al., 1996; Mash et al., 1995; Popik and Glick, 1996; Popik and Skolnick, 1999; Sershen et al., 1997). Simultaneous kappa opioid agonist and NMDA antagonist activity is reportedly required for Ibogaine's effect on drug self administration, dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens (Nac), or locomotor activity (Glick et al., 1997; Glick and Maisonneuve, 1998).

Possible effects on neuroadaptations related to drug sensitization or tolerance: Ibogaine appears to have persistent effects not accounted for by a metabolite with a long biological half life. (Glick et al., 1991; Maisonneuve et al., 1991). Ibogaine's action could possibly involve "resetting" or "normalization" of persistent neuroadaptive changes associated with drug tolerance or sensitization. Such an action could be accounted for by persistent effects on second messengers (Rabin and Winter, 1996a; Rabin and Winter, 1996b). For example, sensitization is thought to involve enhanced dopamine D1 stimulation of cyclic AMP (White and Kalivas, 1998). Ibogaine has been reported to potentiate the inhibition of adenyl cyclase by serotonin (5HT) (Rabin and Winter, 1996a), an effect that would be expected to oppose that associated with sensitization. Ibogaine effects are relatively more evident in animals with prior exposure to amphetamine (Blackburn and Szumlinski, 1997) or morphine (Pearl et al., 1995; Pearl et al., 1996), which is also consistent with an effect of ibogaine on neuroadaptations acquired from drug exposure.

Discrimination studies: Drug discrimination studies offer a possible approach to the issue of ibogaine's mechanism of action, and the question of the possible resolution of ibogaines therapeutic from its hallucinogenic effects. The discrimnability of the ibogaine stimulus does not appear to due to the 5HT2A receptor, the primary mediator of responding for LSD ( Helsley et al., 1998a ,b,c ). NMDA does not appear to be, but sigma 2 and mu and kappa opioid activity may be involved in the ibogaine discriminative stimulus (Helsley et al., 1998c). A high degree of stimulus generalization is reported between ibogaine and Harmala alkaloids, a group of hallucinogenic beta carbolines including harmaline that are structurally related to ibogaine (Helsley et al., 1998d, Helsley et al., 1997 ).

Sessions 1 and 2 Questions for Discussion:
Does ibogaine modify neuroadaptations thought to be associated with substance dependence?
Is the apparent persistence of ibogaine's effect mediated by a long acting metabolite, or a lasting effect on neural signal transduction?
Is ibogaine's putative therapeutic effect mediated by action at one particular receptor or at multiple receptor types simultaneously?

Session 3: Clinical Pharmacology: Efficacy and Safety.

Current Availability: Ibogaine is restricted in the U.S., Belgium, and Switzerland, and is not regulated in the rest of North America and Europe. Presently, treatment with ibogaine is not available as an approved option in conventional medical settings in the US. Presently, treatment with ibogaine can be accessed on a severely limited basis through addict self help networks in Europe or the US, and relatively small and expensive private clinics in Panama and the Caribbean. A single oral dose on the order of 20mg./kg. is given Individuals undergoing ibogaine treatment for the objective of "addiction interruption", most often for the specific indication of opioid dependence (Alper et al., 1999). The other type of ibogaine treatment is the so-called "initiatory session", which usually involves a lower dosage on the order of 10 mg./kg., and is oriented towards non-addicted individuals seeking out the ibogaine experience as a psychotherapeutic paradigm oriented towards the objective of facilitating personal growth and change.

Regulatory History: Prior to being regulated, ibogaine was used for an apparent stimulant-like effect in single doses in the range of 8 to 30 mg, and was sold in France as Lambarène from 1939-1970, for indications which included fatigue, depression, and recovery from infectious disease. Between 1967-70 ibogaine was classified by the World Health Assembly with the hallucinogens and stimulants as a "substance likely to cause dependency or endanger human health", and assigned to Schedule 1 status by the US FDA. In1993 FDA Director Curtis Wright chaired an Advisory Panel meeting which resulted in approval of the Investigational New Drug Application filed by D. Mash for human Phase 1 trials. The protocol initially included only individuals with histories of having previously received ibogaine, at dosage levels of 1,2, and 5 mg.\kg., and was extended to include non ibogaine experienced subjects at doses up to 8 mg./kg. in 1995. The phase I dose escalation study was eventually suspended, reportedly due to non-clinical issues such as finances, and Dr. Mash continued with studies in humans undergoing ibogaine treatment at a clinic in the Caribbean in St. Kitts(Mash et al., 1998, Kovera et al., 1998 ). In 1995 the NIDA-MDD Ibogaine Review Meeting chaired by Director F. Vocci was held to consider the possibility of funding a human trial of ibogaine utilizing a Phase I\II protocol developed within NIDA. The draft protocol called for single administration of fixed dosages of ibogaine of 150 and 300 mg. versus placebo, for the indication of cocaine dependence, and consultants from the pharmaceutical industry were a significant influence in the decision reached in the Review Meeting not to fund the study. Presently, FDA Phase1 work remains approved but not proceeding within the US. Applications for clinical research on ibogaine are reportedly being pursued at the present time in Israel and Europe. NIDA is presently not involved in human studies but continues to support basic research on ibogaine.

 

Evidence of Efficacy in Animal Models: Evidence for ibogaine's effectiveness in animal models of addiction includes observations of reductions in morphine (Dworkin et al., 1995; Glick et al., 1991; Glick et al., 1994; Glick et al., 1996);, cocaine (Glick et al., 1994; Glick et al., 1996) or alcohol (Rezvani 1995) self administration, and diminished locomotor activation or dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens in response to cocaine (Broderick et al., 1994; Glick et al., 1992; Sershen et al., 1996), opioid (Glick et al., 1997; Maisonneuve et al., 1992; Pearl et al., 1995; Pearl et al., 1996), or nicotine (Maisonneuve et al., 1997. Ibogaine is reported to attenuate, or interfere with the acquisition of place preference to amphetamine (Moroz et al.,1997 ) or morphine (Parker et al.,1995). Attenuation of morphine withdrawal has been reported in rodents (Cappendijk et al., 1994; Dzoljic et al., 1988; Glick et al., 1992; Popik et al., 1995) and monkeys (Aceto et al., 1990). An ibogaine congener, 18-Methoxycoronaridine (18-MC), is reportedly effective in animal models of morphine withdrawal (Rho and Glick, 1998), cocaine or morphine self administration (Glick et al., 1996), and nicotine preference (Glick et al., 1998).

Evidence of Efficacy in Humans: One line of clinical evidence suggesting ibogaine's possible efficacy are the accounts of the addicts themselves, whose demand has led to the existence of a historically unprecedented, unofficial treatment network involving addict self-help movement. Opioid dependence is most common indication for which addicts have sought ibogaine treatment. There are some case studies in humans in the literature (Cantor, 1990; Luciano, 1998; Sheppard, 1994; Sisko, 1993) that describe ibogaine treatment in an aggregate total of 13 patients, as well as recent preliminary reports from a private clinic in the Caribbean (Kovera et al., 1998; Mash et al., 1998). Common reported features in these reports are reductions in drug craving and opiate withdrawal signs and symptoms within 1 to 2 hours, and complete resolution of the opioid withdrawal syndrome within 24 hours after the ingestion of ibogaine. These case studies appear consistent with general descriptions of ibogaine treatment (DiRienzo and Beal, 1997; Kaplan et al., 1993; Lotsof et al., 1995).

A recent study summarizing 33 cases treated for the indication of opioid detoxification performed in settings under open label conditions (Alper et al.,1999). Resolution of the signs of opioid withdrawal without further drug seeking behavior within 24 hours was reported in 25 patients. Other outcomes included drug seeking behavior without withdrawal signs (4 patients), drug abstinence with attenuated withdrawal signs (2 patients), drug seeking behavior with continued withdrawal signs (1 patient), and one fatality possibly involving surreptitious heroin use (see "Safety" below). In evaluating the validity of clinical reports of efficacy from the existing informal ibogaine treatment network, a focus on opioid withdrawal may offset some of the methodological limitations of the informal treatment context. Opioid withdrawal, the indication for which most addicts have sought out ibogaine, is a clinically robust phenomenon occurring within a relatively limited time frame yielding reasonably clear outcome measures, which contrasts for example, with the lesser consensus regarding the clinical syndrome of cocaine withdrawal (Gawin and Kleber, 1986; Weddington et al., 1990). The lay "treatment guides" reporting on the above case series might be expected to be able to assess the presence or absence of the relatively clinically obvious and unambiguous features opioid withdrawal, and in the majority of reported cases had the benefit of the corroboration of Jan Bastiaans MD, Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the State University of Leiden. The reported effectiveness of ibogaine in this series suggests the need for systematic investigation in a conventional clinical research setting.

Clinical phenomenology reported by patients treated with ibogaine:
Within 1 to 3 hours of ingestion, ibogaine produces its most intense subjective effects during a state lasting approximately 4 to 8 hours. The acute phase is characterized by the panoramic recall of a large amount of material relating to prior life events from long-term memory, primarily in the visual modality. Ibogaine related visual experiences are strongly associated with eye closure, and suppressed by eye opening. Descriptions of this state appear more consistent with the experience of dreams than hallucinations, and the term "oneiric" (Greek, oneiros, dream) has been preferred to the term "hallucinogenic". Individuals who have taken ibogaine describe an experience of being placed in, and entering and exiting entire visual landscapes, rather than the intrusion of visual or auditory hallucinations on an otherwise continuous waking experience of reality. Hallucinations have been described but do not appear to be as prominent an aspect of the experience as the volume of images recalled from visual long-term memory. Following the acute phase is a state lasting approximately 8 to 20 hours in which the density of recall of visual images is greatly reduced and attention is directed toward evaluating the material recalled in the acute phase. The emotional tone of this second state appears to be generally characterized as neutral and reflective. Reduced need for sleep for several days to weeks following treatment is commonly reported. Patients have reported significant reductions or total cessation of substance use and craving for weeks to months or longer following treatment, although methodologically adequate follow-up observations are lacking.

Safety: The safety concern that is currently most problematic for the development of ibogaine a fatality occurring during a heroin detoxification treatment of 24 year old female in the Netherlands in 1993. This incident, which is currently was a significant factor in the decision not to pursue a clinical trial of ibogaine following the NIDA Review Meeting held in March of 1995 [F. Vocci, Director, MDD-NIDA, personal communication, 1998] The patient received an ibogaine dose of 29 mg\kg., and then suffered a respiratory arrest, possibly involving aspiration, and died 19 hours post treatment. Forensic pathological examination revealed no definitive conclusion regarding the probable cause of death (Van Ingen 1994), and cited the general lack of information correlating ibogaine concentrations with possible toxic effects in humans. The potential artifact associated with a high volume of distribution and postmortem release of drug previously sequestered in tissue (Broderick et al., 1994; Dhahir, 1971; Hough et al., 1996) limits the interpretability of postmortem levels of ibogaine, or its principal metabolite noribogaine. An additional source of uncertainty was the possibility of surreptitious opioid use, which was suggested by the finding among the patient's effects of charred tin foil, which is used to smoke heroin by the method of ``chasing the dragon" which is popular in the Dutch heroin scene (Strang et al., 1997). Analysis of gastric contents for heroin or morphine, which might have confirmed recent heroin smoking, and analysis of blood for 6-monoacetyl morphine, a heroin metabolite whose presence indicates recent use (Kintz et al., 1989) were not performed. There is evidence that suggests that the toxicity of opioids may be relatively greater following treatment with ibogaine (Popik et al., 1995; Schneider and McArthur, 1956). This incident underscores the need for the security procedures and medical supervision available in a conventional medical setting, and completion the FDA dose escalation studies (Mash et al., 1998) to allow systematic collection of pharmacokinetic and safety data.

Neurotoxicity: A safety concern regarding potential neurotoxicity was raised by the observation of cerebellar damage in rats in the context of work in which ibogaine at a high dose of 100 mg\kg was used as a probe of the functional anatomy of excitatory transmission in the olivocerebellar tract (O'Hearn and Molliver, 1993, O'Hearn and Molliver, 1997 ). However, no evidence of toxicity was seen at the dose of 40 mg\kg demonstrated to reduce morphine or cocaine self administration in rats (Cappendijk et al., 1994; Glick et al., 1991; Glick et al., 1994; Molinari et al., 1996). Helsley et. al., (1997) (Helsley et al., 1997) treated rats with 10 mg/kg ibogaine every other day for 60 days and observed no evidence of neurotoxicity. Likewise, Mash et al., (1998) (Mash et al., 1998) observed no evidence of neurotoxicity in monkeys treated for 5 days with repeated oral doses of ibogaine of 5 to 25 mg\kg, or subcutaneously administered doses of 100 mg\kg. J. W. Olney has described the rationale for the use of ibogaine as an actual neuroprotective agent to minimize excitotoxic damage in stroke and anoxic brain injury (Olney, 1997). The available evidence suggests that the neurotoxic effects of ibogaine occur at levels higher than those observed to have effects on opioid withdrawal and self administration. In addition, the neurotoxic effects of ibogaine appear to be specifically mediated by activity at the sigma type 2 opioid receptor, and to be potentially dissociable from ibogaine's putative antiaddictive effect (Glick and Maisonneuve, 1998). Ibogaine's activity at the sigma 2 receptor may explain the apparent paradox of possible cerebellar excitotoxicity at high doses despite its properties as an NMDA antagonist (Glick et al., 1998a). Ibogaine's cerebellar excitoxicity appears to be related to excitatory effects mediated by sigma 2 receptors in the olivocerebellar projection which excite cerebellar Purkinje cells (Coutre and Debonnel, 1998 ), whose synaptic redundancy makes them particularly vulnerable to excitotoxic injury (O'Hearn and Molliver, 1997). An ibogaine congener with relatively less sigma 2 activity, 18-methoxycoronaridine, reportedly produces effects similar to ibogaine on morphine and cocaine administration in rats, but has shown no evidence of neurotoxicity even at high dosages (Glick et al. 1996, Glick et al., 1998a,b)

Session 3 Questions for Discussion:
What is a clinically efficacious dose of ibogaine?
Is ibogaine safe for treatment in humans at dosage levels thought to be necessary for clinical efficacy?
What measures are needed to provide appropriate assurance of safety in an ibogaine clinical trial?

Session 4: Learning, Memory, and Neurophysiology.

Rationale: Drug abusers may be viewed as having a disorder involving excess attribution of salience to drugs and related stimuli ( Robinson and Berridge 1993 ), which suggests the possibility of a role of processes subserving learning and memory in the acquisition of the pathological motivational focus in addiction (Wickelgren, 1998). Ibogaine appears to have important activity at the NMDA receptor (see above), and is involved in long term potentiation (LTP), which is a process thought to be important in learning, memory and neural plasticity. Experiences apparently involving memory, such as panoramic recall are prominent in descriptions by individuals who have taken ibogaine. Animal studies of ibogaine suggest an attenuation of place preference learning for morphine or amphetamine (Moroz et al.,1997, Parker et al.,1995 ). A general effect of interference with learning has been suggested (Kesner et al., 1995), but studies on spatial learning show an enhancement by ibogaine (Helsley et al., 1997 Popik, 1996). The demonstration of interference of ibogaine with the expression of behavioral sensitization to amphetamine but not preference acquired to taste (Blackburn and Szumlinski, 1997) raises the interesting possibility of a specific effect of ibogaine on the pathological encoding of drug salience, distinguished from learning involving more appropriate non-drug incentives.

Ibogaine and the EEG: The apparent sensitivity of the EEG to exposure to drugs of abuse (Alper et al.,1998). suggests that an EEG effect of ibogaine might relate to its putative therapeutic action. Studies in animals treated acutely with ibogaine report an apparently activated EEG state consistent with arousal, vigilance, or REM sleep, and a decline in delta amplitude, interpreted as similar to that reported in animals with activation of dopaminergic receptors (Binienda, 1998). The possible involvement of ascending cholinergic input is suggested by the observation that ibogaine enhanced an atropine sensitive theta frequency rhythm (Depoortere, 1987). There is apparently no data on possible differences between the pre- and post- treatment EEG, or effects persisting into extended periods of time post treatment.

Session 4 Questions for Discussion:
Can ibogaine's effects on memory be linked to its putative therapeutic action?
What pharmacologic activity appears to be represented in the EEG changes reported with ibogaine?

 

Session 5: Ethnographic and Sociological Methods.

Rationale: Ibogaines' use appears to involve distinctive interactions of psychopharmacologic effects with set and setting. Some of the same interactions may be shared between the ibogaine subculture of the US and Europe and the centuries older, sacramental context of the use of Eboga by the Bwiti cult of West Central Africa. In both settings the ibogaine experience has been attributed with serving the objective of facilitating personal growth and change.

In the present era of growing interest in "alternative medicine", an awareness of why individuals chose to use ibogaine could be useful in accessing hidden populations presently unavailable to more conventional treatment. The application of ethnographic techniques to the quantitative analysis of the phenomenologic features of the acute treatment experience could be informative from both a neuropsychiatric and cultural perspective. For example, similar subjective phenomena are frequently described in both ibogaine treatment and near death experiences (NDEs) (Roberts and Owen, 1988) such as panoramic memory; calm, detached emotional tone; specific experiences such as passage along a long path, or floating; "visions" or "waking dream" states featuring archetypal experiences such as contact with transcendent beings; and the frequent attribution of transcendent significance to the experience. Such shared features between ibogaine and NDEs suggest a common transcultural phenomenoloy of transcendent or religious experience, as well as the possibility of a common underlying neuropsychiatric mechanism such as altered NMDA transmission.

Session 5 Questions for Discussion:
Could ibogaine be adapted to the conventional clinical setting?
Does ethnographic evidence indicate a communality among experiences attributed with sacred or transcendent value?

 

Session 6: Political, Economic, and Historical Perspectives.

Economic Incentives and Ibogaine Development: The academic research community working in the public sector has a crucial role in studying ibogaine as a paradigm for the development of new treatment approaches. The strategy of relying on the pharmaceutical industry to underwrite the cost of drug development works extremely well in many instances, but presents some limitations with regard to the development of ibogaine. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry has not generally viewed addiction as an attractive area for development. Ibogaine is particularly unattractive, because its mechanism of action is complex and incompletely understood, and its patent is close to expiration. US public expenditures for the development of medications for addiction are small relative to those of the pharmaceutical industry, or to the potential societal return. The entire annual budget for MDD, which accounts for about 90% of U.S. public sector spending on developing addiction pharmacotherapy, is only the order of approximately 60 million dollars, a fraction of the estimated $200 to $600 million average cost of bringing a drug to market.

In the public sector the major economic incentive for the development of addiction treatment is the saved costs associated with preventing medical morbidity, crime, HIV, or hepatitis. In the private sector, decisions are based on weighing the expense of development against the expected profit, and not the magnitude of saved costs to society. In the case of a theoretically interesting drug with a limited profit potential and significant developmental expense, the private sector's weighting of costs and long term incentives can appear to be irrational from the larger standpoint of society.

Cost Effectiveness: The experience of the addict self-help community, which has provided ibogaine treatment in non-medical settings such as an apartment or hotel room, provides some evidence for ibogaine as an inexpensive and practical "low tech" treatment approach. Ibogaine may be well adapted as a treatment option under circumstances of severely limited resources and a pressing need to provide clinical services to heroin addicts such as Eastern Europe. The shrub that produces ibogaine, which is isolated from root scrapings with a purity of over 98%, can be easily cultivated, which favors further improvement in cost effectiveness if ibogaine becomes a conventional treatment option. On the other hand, the need for clinical personnel for roles presently filled by lay providers in the existing informal treatment network would also need to be included in a calculation of the costs associated with ibogaine treatment in a conventional medical setting.

 

Session 6 Questions for Discussion:
Would ibogaine treatment adapted to the conventional clinical setting be cost effective?
How have political issues affected ibogaine's development?

 

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