Research library / Case report
Fatalities temporally associated with the ingestion of ibogaine
Alper KR, Stajić M, Gill JR. Journal of Forensic Sciences 2012;57(2):398-412
Case reportIbogaineopioid use disordersubstance use disorder
This review gathered every available autopsy and investigation report for deaths linked in time to ibogaine outside West Central Africa from 1990 to 2008. Nineteen people died between 90 minutes and about three days after taking it. Where the records were good enough, most deaths involved serious pre-existing illness, mainly heart disease, or other drugs taken alongside. The authors also flag seizures from alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal and poorly informed use of plant forms of ibogaine as risk factors. The review cannot give a death rate, because nobody knows how many people took ibogaine in that period.
What it found
- 19 people died between 1.5 and 76 hours after taking ibogaine
- In 12 of the 14 cases with adequate post-mortem data, advanced pre-existing medical conditions (mainly cardiovascular) and/or other commonly abused substances explained or contributed to death
- Other apparent risk factors: seizures from alcohol or benzodiazepine withdrawal, and uninformed use of ethnopharmacological forms of ibogaine