Chapter 11 Modulation of the effects of rewarding drugs by ibogaine

Publisher The chapter discusses some of the evidences that ibogaine modulates drug effects in animals. Results of research with ibogaine indicate that the alkaloid may modulate the rewarding properties of drugs and interfere with withdrawal reactions in animals. Ibogaine has been reported to modulate the development of morphine tolerance in rats. There are two commonly used methods for evaluating drug reward in animals” drug self-administration and place preference conditioning. In drug self-administration, an animal must make some response, such as a lever press, which is followed by a presentation of the drug reward. The place-conditioning paradigm is an alternative measure of drug reward. With this procedure, during a training period, rats are confined to one distinctive compartment following injection of a drug and an alternative compartment following injection of an inert substance. Advocates for ibogaine—as an antiaddictive medication—argue that ibogaine modulates a variety of addictive disorders, not only opiate addiction. Animal evidence reported above also indicates that ibogaine modulates the rewarding properties of stimulants when evaluated in the self-administration paradigm or in the place preference paradigm.