Ibogaine, a naturally occurring
alkaloid, has been claimed to be effective in treating addition to
opiate and stimulant drugs. As a preclinical test of this claim, the present study sought to determine if
ibogaine would reduce the intravenous
self-administration of
morphine in rats.
Ibogaine dose dependently (2.5-80 mg/kg) decreased
morphine intake in the hour after
ibogaine treatment (acute effect) and, to a lesser extent, a day later (aftereffect); while the acute effect could be attributed to abnormal motor behavior (whole body
tremors), the aftereffect occurred at a time when
ibogaine should have been entirely eliminated from the body and when there was no obvious indication of
ibogaine exposure. In some rats, there was a persistent decrease in
morphine intake for several days or weeks after a single injection of
ibogaine; other rats began to show such persistent changes only after two or three weekly
injections whereas a few rats were apparently resistant to prolonged aftereffects. Aftereffects could not be attributed to a conditioned aversion. Although
ibogaine also depressed responding acutely in rats trained to bar-press for water, there was no evidence of any aftereffect a day or more later; the interaction between
ibogaine and
morphine reinforcement was therefore somewhat specific. Further studies are needed to characterize the nature of the
ibogaine-
morphine interaction as well as to determine if
ibogaine also affects the
self-administration of other drugs.