Heroin dependence · Mexico City
Ibogaine Treatment for Heroin Addiction
Withdrawal can fall away in hours. The screening that gets you there still takes weeks.
That gap is the whole page. What the medicine does is fast and well documented. What we do before it is slow, and it is slow on purpose, because the part that kills people is the part nobody films.
The short answer
What is ibogaine treatment for heroin addiction?
Ibogaine treatment for heroin addiction is 1 physician-supervised dose, given inside a 7-day inpatient stay under continuous cardiac monitoring, to interrupt heroin withdrawal and reduce craving.
Heroin is the dependence the published ibogaine research covers most directly. It is short-acting and it clears on a timeline a physician can plan around, which makes it more predictable to schedule than fentanyl. That predictability is the only thing about it that is simple.
It is not a cure, it is not approved by the FDA, and it is not given to anyone whose EKG, electrolytes or medication list fall outside written cardiac thresholds. Roughly the most useful thing on this page is the section on what your supply probably contained, because it changes the plan more often than anything you will tell us about heroin itself.
Two clocks
Hours for the drug. Weeks for the decision.
Heroin withdrawal runs on a schedule most patients already know by heart. Our screening runs on a slower one. Clinics that let the first clock set the second are the ones people get hurt at.
What heroin withdrawal does
Measured in hours6 to 12 hours
After the last dose, early symptoms begin. Restlessness, sweating, watering eyes, yawning.
24 to 72 hours
The peak. Cramping, vomiting, diarrhoea, insomnia. This is when electrolytes drop, and that matters more than it sounds.
5 to 7 days
Acute symptoms mostly settle. Sleep and appetite lag well behind.
Weeks after
Low mood, poor sleep and craving persist. This is the stretch relapse usually happens in.
What our screening does
Measured in weeksDay 1 of contact
3 questions, then a physician or nurse calls you back within 1 business day. No cost, no deposit.
Week 1
A 12-lead EKG plus potassium, magnesium and a liver panel, ordered where you live. Full medication review.
Week 2 onward
The cardiologist reads the trace against written thresholds. Anything correctable gets corrected and retested.
Written answer
Yes, not yet, or no, with the reason. Only then does a date and a deposit exist.
If you are in withdrawal right now, this timeline is not the answer you need. Withdrawal is medically managed here on days 1 and 2 of the stay, but getting to day 1 takes the weeks above. Anyone offering to skip them is skipping the part that keeps you alive.
Before we plan anything
You may not have been using heroin.
In the DEA’s 2024 analysis of US heroin exhibits, fentanyl was present in the large majority of powder heroin samples tested at regional laboratories, and in a far smaller share of black tar samples. Which of those you have been buying changes your washout, so we ask about form and region on the first call.
83%
Powder heroin exhibits
Share of powder heroin samples analysed at DEA regional laboratories in 2024 that were adulterated with fentanyl. If you have been buying powder, plan on the fentanyl protocol until testing says otherwise.
14%
Black tar heroin exhibits
The same figure for tar heroin. Much lower, which is why the form matters clinically and why we do not treat every heroin patient as a fentanyl patient by default.
Why it decides the plan: fentanyl stores in fat and leaves slowly, so it needs a longer washout than heroin does. Getting this wrong risks precipitated withdrawal on dosing day, which is the day the heart is already under the most strain. If your answers point that way, we move you onto the fentanyl protocol and the date moves with it.
What day 3 actually is
A cardiologist, an emergency physician and an ACLS-trained nurse in the room. Continuous 12-lead ECG and pulse oximetry through the session and overnight. A crash cart on site and a written transfer agreement with a hospital 9 minutes away.
Straight answers
4 things you were probably told that are not true.
These come up on almost every screening call. We would rather correct them here than have you arrive expecting something else.
“Ibogaine is a shortcut through the worst of detox.”
What we tell youThe published data does show withdrawal scores dropping fast, within 36 hours in the largest monitored series. But the days before dosing are still withdrawal, managed by a physician rather than skipped. Nobody bypasses it. It is supervised instead of survived alone.
“One session and the addiction is dealt with.”
What we tell youEvery study measures a reduction in use, not resolution of dependence. In the 30-person Mexican series, about 1 in 3 reported abstinence at 3 months, which also means most did not. The 90 days of follow-up exist because the session is a starting point.
“If my heart feels fine, the screening is a formality.”
What we tell youIbogaine blocks a potassium channel in heart muscle and can prolong the QT interval. The cardiology literature is clear that pre-existing heart disease is not required for a fatal event. Feeling fine is not a reading. A 12-lead EKG is.
“After treatment my tolerance resets, so a normal dose is safe again.”
What we tell youThe reverse. Tolerance falls, so the amount you used before treatment carries a higher overdose risk afterward than it did before you came. This is said at discharge, written into the summary for your own doctor, and raised again on the first follow-up call. Naloxone at home is part of that conversation.
The 7 days
What happens, day by day.
Open any of them. The days that matter most for a heroin case are 1 and 2, because that is where withdrawal is managed and where the go or no-go decision is actually made.
1Arrival, and the decision made again
Private driver from MEX Terminal 1. Repeat 12-lead EKG and repeat labs, compared against the trace you were approved on rather than only against the threshold. Full medication reconciliation, including anything you did not want to put in writing earlier. If the numbers have moved, the answer changes here, not in the dosing room.
2Withdrawal, managed rather than endured
The physician manages withdrawal directly, with the nurse on site through the night. Potassium and magnesium are corrected, because vomiting and poor intake drop both and low levels make ibogaine’s effect on the heart worse. Dosing does not happen until those values are in range. For heroin this is usually the hardest day and the shortest problem.
3The dosing session
1 supervised oral dose of pharmaceutical-grade ibogaine. A cardiologist, an emergency physician and an ACLS-trained nurse in the room, 1 to 1. Continuous 12-lead ECG and pulse oximetry through the session and overnight. The experience itself runs several hours and is usually described as dream-like rather than hallucinatory, followed by a long reflective stretch where sleep does not come easily.
4Telemetry through the tail
Overnight telemetry and a morning EKG. Ibogaine’s active metabolite is still in the body well after the session ends, so monitoring continues past the point most people assume the treatment is over. This is the day patients are most surprised by, and the one we will not shorten.
5Sleep, food, and the psychiatrist
Appetite and sleep return unevenly and rarely on the schedule people expect. Psychiatrist sessions begin here. Family visiting hours are available, and family are told the same things you are.
6Planning the part that is not in Mexico
Discharge planning happens with your home clinician rather than after you land. The referral list of US clinicians is gone through with you, not handed over at the door. The follow-up call schedule is set to actual dates.
7Discharge, in writing
A written clinical summary for your own physician, the referral list, the call schedule, and the tolerance warning said out loud to you and to whoever is travelling with you. Weekly calls run through day 30, then psychiatrist calls at days 45, 60 and 90.
The evidence
How strong is the case, claim by claim.
Graded honestly. No published randomised controlled trial of ibogaine for opioid dependence exists, so nothing below reaches the top of that scale, and we will not pretend otherwise.
It reduces acute opioid withdrawal
Withdrawal scores fell within 36 hours of a single dose across 102 opioid-dependent inpatients in a monitored facility (Mash and colleagues, 2018). This is the most consistently reported finding in the literature.
It reduces use in the months afterward
12 of 30 people reported a 75% reduction in opioid use at 30 days, and 1 in 3 reported abstinence at 3 months (Brown and Alper, 2018). Small sample, no control group, self-reported.
The effect holds at 12 months
Drug-use scores stayed significantly reduced at 1 year in 14 people in New Zealand, of whom 8 completed every interview (Noller and colleagues, 2018). It is the only year-long follow-up published, and 1 participant died during treatment.
It cures dependence, or works without screening
Nothing published supports either claim. The safety findings above all come from monitored inpatient settings with cardiac screening, which is the only setting they describe.
The papers with their limits set out, including the forensic review of ibogaine-associated deaths, are on the what we treat page.
Who we turn away
A no and a not yet are different answers.
Both arrive in writing with the reason. Any deposit is refunded in full, and where we can we hand you a referral to a clinician near you. Nobody is passed to another clinic for a fee.
Permanent
No
- Structural heart disease, heart failure, cardiomyopathy, or a prior cardiac event
- Conduction disease on the EKG, or a QTc above threshold with no correctable cause
- Benzodiazepine dependence as the main problem, because the withdrawal can cause seizures and ibogaine does not shorten the taper
- Pregnancy or breastfeeding, and anyone under 18
- Wanting the dose without the screening, the 7 days, or the follow-up
Reversible
Not yet
- Potassium, magnesium or liver values outside range, pending correction and a recheck
- A QT-prolonging medication your own prescriber has not yet agreed a plan for
- Significant fentanyl exposure that shifts you onto the longer washout
- Use during the washout window. Tell us and the date moves, with no penalty
- An untreated infection or injection-site wound that needs care before you are fit to fly
Telling us the truth about what you have used is never a reason for a no. The full decline list covers every dependence we treat.
Common questions
Heroin and ibogaine, answered plainly.
Most of what decides your case is an EKG and a medication list, which is why the screening call exists and why it costs nothing.
01How fast does heroin withdrawal stop after ibogaine?
In the largest published monitored inpatient series, withdrawal scores fell within 36 hours of dosing. Patients often describe it as hours rather than days. Neither is a guarantee for any individual case, and neither says anything about what happens at 6 months.
02Can I be screened while I am still using?
Yes, and nearly everyone is. You are never asked to detox alone before travelling. What we need is an honest account of what you use, how often, by what route and when, including anything not prescribed.
03Do I need to stop before I fly?
There is a washout window before dosing, and its length is set by the physician for your case. For heroin alone it is shorter than for fentanyl. If your supply carried fentanyl, the window lengthens. Either way you get it in writing before any deposit, and if you use during it you tell us and we move the date.
04How do I know if my heroin had fentanyl in it?
Often you cannot know without testing, which is why we ask about form and region instead of asking you to guess. In DEA analysis of 2024 samples, fentanyl was present in most powder heroin exhibits tested at regional laboratories and in a much smaller share of black tar. If your answers point toward powder, we plan for the longer washout until testing says otherwise.
05I have been on and off methadone. Does that matter?
Yes, and it is one of the more common complications. Methadone prolongs the QT interval on its own, and ibogaine does the same, so the two are never combined. If you are currently on it, a transition to a short-acting opioid is planned by our psychiatrist with your prescriber first. That timeline runs in weeks.
06Is the experience frightening?
It varies, and we will not tell you it is pleasant. Most people describe a dream-like state rather than hallucinations, often with an extended autobiographical review, running several hours. Afterward comes a long reflective stretch with very little sleep. You are not alone at any point, and a nurse is with you 1 to 1 throughout.
07What are the odds it works for me?
Nobody can answer that honestly, us included. The published samples are small, none has a control group, and outcomes are self-reported. Any clinic quoting you a success rate has invented it. What we can tell you is what the studies measured and what they did not, which is the section above.
08What does it cost, and what is not included?
$12,500 for the 7 days and the 90 days of follow-up. Not included: flights, the EKG and labs your own doctor orders before screening, extra nights beyond 7, medications prescribed after discharge, and family accommodation outside the facility. All of it is itemised on the pricing page.
Screening costs nothing
Start the slow clock today, so the fast one is not the one deciding.
3 questions on the contact page. A physician or nurse calls you back within 1 business day and tells you which tests to order at home. The answer comes in writing, whether it is yes, not yet, or no.