Accelerated recovery using magnesium ibogaine: characterizing the subjective experience of its rapid healing from neuropsychiatric disorders
Stanford University School of Medicine
How they used Delve
A Stanford University team published in npj Mental Health Research used Delve to run a constructivist grounded-theory analysis of post-treatment narratives from 30 Special Operations veterans treated with magnesium-ibogaine for TBI and PTSD.
“Verified de-identified data was transferred into Delve, a software package specialized for qualitative thematic analyses (Qualitative Data Analysis Learning Center — Delve, n.d.).”
- Field
- Psychiatry / psychedelic medicine
- Data
- Written post-session narratives from 30 male U.S. Special Operations veterans answering three open-ended questions after a single magnesium-ibogaine treatment
- Approach
- Constructivist grounded theory on written responses to three open-ended questions collected in REDCap
- Data types
- Open-ended survey responses
Abstract
Magnesium-ibogaine, a formulation combining ibogaine with pre- and post-treatment magnesium, was recently found to yield rapid clinical improvements in U.S. Special Operations veterans with TBI and PTSD. Yet, its therapeutic phenomenology during such healing is unknown. We analyzed post-session narratives from 30 male veterans who, after a single open-label magnesium-ibogaine treatment, answered three open-ended questions. A constructivist grounded-theory approach identified four recurrent experiential domains: dialogic trauma re-appraisal marked by guided replay of autobiographical memories; altered-self and mystical connectedness; emotional resolution with surges of forgiveness, love, and renewed purpose; and embodied healing, a vivid sense of neural repair accompanied by cognitive clarity and somatic relief. Together, these themes portray an accelerated, self-directed psychotherapeutic process that dovetails with previously reported improvements in this same cohort, suggesting mind-body mechanisms involving rapid neuroplastic change and highlighting its potential to inform novel approaches to trauma and TBI.
Citation
Clayton Olash, Derrick Matthew Buchanan, Randi Brown, Afik Faerman, Kirsten Cherian, George Lin, David Spiegel, James J. Gross, Nolan Williams (2026). Accelerated recovery using magnesium ibogaine: characterizing the subjective experience of its rapid healing from neuropsychiatric disorders. npj Mental Health Research. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44184-026-00185-7