Joe Rogan exaggerates efficacy of psychedelic ibogaine for treating opioid addiction

Opioid addiction has shattered countless American lives. A near-perfect cure could be miraculous and podcaster Joe Rogan recently said it’s within reach. 

"With one dose of Ibogaine, more than 80% of people are free of that addiction," he said April 18 at the White House, where President Donald Trump signed an executive order concerning the drug. "With two doses, it's more than 90%."

Ibogaine is a psychedelic medication derived from the Iboga shrub found in Central and West Africa. When taken in large amounts, it causes hallucinations that can last more than 24 hours and cause cardiac problems.

The Trump administration’s new executive order directs federal agencies to make psychedelic drugs, including ibogaine, more available to researchers and patients while funneling money toward new research. 

Ibogaine has shown some promise in treating opioid addiction, but published research is minimal, largely because it’s illegal in many countries, including the U.S.

So far, studies have found ibogaine is especially beneficial for reducing withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings in the days and weeks after taking it. One study, for example, found that 80% of people reported that ibogaine drastically reduced or eliminated their withdrawal symptoms — that may be where Rogan got this number. Rogan did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for evidence.

But getting through withdrawal and being "free" from addiction are not the same thing.   

There is some evidence ibogaine may help people quit opioids long-term, but none of the available research shows rates of long-term abstinence from opioids as high as Rogan described. 

Interest in ibogaine as an addiction treatment goes back decades

The idea of using ibogaine to support sobriety dates back to 1962, when Howard Lotsof credited the drug for freeing him from his heroin addiction at 19 years old. Lotsof spent the rest of his life advocating for the treatment. 

Over the next several decades, case reports and anecdotal success stories provided hope to people struggling with opioid addiction. 

But formal research has been lacking. The U.S. classified ibogaine as a Schedule I drug in 1970, a category defined as having a high potential for abuse and no medical benefit. In 1993, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a Phase I clinical trial to test low doses of the drug but suspended it in 1995 because of lack of funding. 

Americans seeking to use ibogaine to curb their addictions often travel to Brazil, Mexico or New Zealand, where clinics offer ibogaine treatment. 

Small, observational studies show promise, but their methodology is lacking 

Researchers have conducted a handful of small, observational studies since the turn of the century. In most cases, researchers followed people in the days or weeks after taking the drug and observed positive results, including significant reductions in withdrawal symptoms and drug cravings. Being observational means the study’s researchers didn’t manipulate the environment or assign treatment as they would in an experimental study. 

We identified three such studies that followed patients for longer periods to assess ibogaine’s effects on long-term cessation. None of them looked at the effects of multiple doses.

• A 2017 study followed 30 opioid-addicted patients treated at clinics in Mexico. One month after treatment, 50% of participants reported no opioid use. It dropped to 33% of all participants after three months and 23% of all participants after a year.

• Another 2017 study followed 14 participants treated at New Zealand clinics. After 12 months, 55% of the 11 patients who remained in the study reported being opioid-free for the 30 days prior. 

• A 2018 survey asked 88 patients who completed ibogaine treatment in Mexico between 2012 and 2015. Respondents noted acute benefits of treatment, with 80% saying their "withdrawal symptoms were eliminated or drastically reduced." Thirty percent reported never using opioids again after treatment. Among those who abstained, 54% had done so for at least a year, and 31% for two years. Seventy percent of the original 88 reported relapsing after treatment. 

Alan K. Davis, an Ohio State University professor who coauthored the 2018 survey, said they didn’t know where Rogan got the figures he referenced at the White House. 

"This is not based on science and is likely anecdotal or marketing data from an ibogaine clinic," Davis told PolitiFact.

Existing ibogaine research comes with limitations 

Results from ibogaine studies are promising, but much more research is needed before safety and efficacy is fully understood, experts said.

Geoff Nadler, a medical anthropologist and the author of the New Zealand study, said that because his research was observational, the methodology is "weak" and not "representative of all treatment outcomes for ibogaine or any other treatment."

"We didn't recruit people to be treated and set the conditions of their treatment," Nadler said. "We just observed the treatment outcomes of a group of people who decided to be treated." 

There have been a few placebo-controlled clinical trials, but they have focused on ibogaine’s safety, not on its benefits for addiction treatment. 

It’s also hard to measure whether a person has been "freed" from addiction, a challenge across treatment research. Results can shift depending on how long researchers tracked patients, whether the drug abstention is self-reported or confirmed with drug testing, and how many patients dropped out of the study. Which drugs study participants are using — heroin versus fentanyl, for example — can also affect recovery outcomes. 

These factors make it hard to compare the success of various treatments but a Harvard Review of Psychiatry review of longitudinal studies found that after 10 years, only about 30% of people were still abstaining from opioids at the most recent follow up. 

Ibogaine comes with cardiac risks, but shows promise for other mental health treatment

Even with Trump’s new executive order, ibogaine may face obstacles to becoming a mainstream, FDA-approved treatment. 

Its biggest documented risk so far is cardiotoxicity, said Kirsten Cherian, a Stanford University neuropsychologist researching ibogaine. The drug has been linked to multiple heart attacks and deaths.

Cherian said there are ways to mitigate this risk: Screening for existing cardiac issues, giving magnesium with the drug to protect the heart and monitoring the heart during treatment. 

Ibogaine’s side effects are significant. People taking it report experiencing intense hallucinations lasting more than 24 hours and involving intense or traumatic visions or memories. It can cause nausea, vomiting, and loss of muscle coordination. 

The drug has shown promise beyond treating addiction. In 2024, Stanford University researchers found that veterans with traumatic brain injuries experienced improvements in depression and anxiety symptoms after taking ibogaine.

Our ruling

Rogan said, "With one dose of ibogaine, more than 80% of people are free of (opioid) addiction. With two doses, it's more than 90%."

The treatment shows promise, but we found no research supporting this statement. Limited studies show acute benefits from ibogaine treatment such as reduced drug cravings and improved withdrawal symptoms following treatment.

But the existing research into whether this treatment helps people to quit long term  is observational and limited by small sample sizes. The studies have identified opioid cessation rates ranging from 23 to 55% after a year. 

That’s a significant figure, but it’s not close to the rate Rogan said.

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly False.