Ibogaine/GDNF tackles addiction via VTA and dopamine
The March issue of Nature Rev. Neuroscience includes an interesting article about an herbal remedy, ibogaine, which appears to upregulate glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) in the VTA (ventral tegmental area, which seems to play a key role in reward learning). Apparently, an increase in GDNF activity makes alcohol (and presumably other VTA-involved compounds, like opiates) less addictive.
March 7th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
thought ibogaine just gave you a massive psychadelic kick which might or might not take you out of an addiction cycle, good to hear it’s actaully got a real mechanism of action