If you have searched ClinicalTrials.gov for ibogaine, you have almost certainly landed on NCT04313712 and seen a single grey line of text near the top of the record: Active, not recruiting.
That phrase does a lot of work, and it is misread constantly. People see "active" and assume the study is still enrolling. Others see "not recruiting" and assume it failed or was shut down. Both readings are wrong, and the difference matters if you are a veteran, a family member, or a clinician trying to understand where ibogaine research actually stands.
This article decodes that one field on that one record. For the wider question of which studies are open right now, see our companion breakdown of ClinicalTrials.gov ibogaine studies recruiting in the United States, which maps the full national picture.
What NCT04313712 actually is
Straight from the registry record, verified against the ClinicalTrials.gov API:
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| NCT ID | NCT04313712 |
| Brief title | Pre-post Evaluation of the Safety and Efficacy of Ibogaine-Magnesium Therapy in Veterans With Repeated Blast Exposure |
| Overall status | ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING |
| Study type | Observational |
| Lead sponsor | Stanford University |
| Conditions | Blast or combat exposure; head injury trauma |
| Enrollment | 30 participants |
| Location | Stanford University School of Medicine, United States |
| Start date | 15 November 2021 |
| Primary completion | February 2025 |
| Completion date | February 2025 |
Two things on that table deserve far more attention than the status line everyone fixates on: Observational, and enrollment of 30.
What "Active, not recruiting" means — and what it does not
ClinicalTrials.gov uses a controlled vocabulary for the status field. "Active, not recruiting" has a precise definition:
The study is ongoing — participants are receiving an intervention or being examined — but the study has stopped taking new participants.
Unpack that into plain language:
What it means
- Enrollment is closed. You cannot sign up. There is no waitlist to join through the registry.
- The study still exists as a live research project. Follow-up visits, data collection, analysis, or outcome assessment are still underway.
- The sponsor has not withdrawn, suspended, or terminated it.
What it does not mean
- It does not mean the study is recruiting. This is the single most common misreading.
- It does not mean the study failed. Failure has its own statuses: Terminated (stopped early), Suspended (paused), Withdrawn (closed before enrolling anyone).
- It does not mean results are published. Publication is a separate process from registry status, and the two routinely fall out of sync.
- It does not mean treatment is available to the public anywhere.
That last point is where real harm happens. An "active" status on a registry record is not a treatment access route. It is a bookkeeping state.
The observational/interventional distinction changes everything here
This is the part of NCT04313712 that is most often reported incorrectly, including by outlets that should know better.
The record lists an intervention with type DRUG, named "ibogaine with magnesium treatment." Read quickly, that looks like Stanford administered ibogaine to veterans.
It did not. The study type is OBSERVATIONAL.
In an observational study, the intervention field describes an exposure the researchers are observing — not something the research team assigns, supplies, or administers. Investigators measure outcomes in people who obtained a treatment through their own independent decisions and their own channels. The researchers watch, measure, and analyse. They do not dose.
The practical consequences:
- No participant received ibogaine from Stanford.
- Nobody could have enrolled in order to receive treatment, even while it was recruiting.
- Because participants self-selected, the design cannot establish causation the way a randomised controlled trial can. There is no control group, no randomisation, and no blinding.
None of this makes the work unimportant — pre-post observational data on a population that is otherwise very hard to study is genuinely valuable, and the associated published findings on symptom reduction in veterans drew serious attention for good reason. We covered those outcomes in detail in our analysis of Stanford's groundbreaking ibogaine study and what it showed for veterans.
But an observational finding is a signal that justifies a trial. It is not a substitute for one. Anyone citing NCT04313712 as proof of efficacy is overreading the record.
Reading the dates: completed in February 2025, still listed as "active"
NCT04313712 lists both primary completion and overall completion as February 2025 — in the past. So why does it still say Active, not recruiting rather than Completed?
Three ordinary explanations, none of them sinister:
- Administrative lag. Sponsors update registry records manually. A status change to Completed requires someone to log in and file it. Delays of many months are unremarkable.
- Long-tail activity. Final outcome adjudication, data cleaning, and database lock can continue well past the listed completion date.
- Date semantics. The completion date is the anticipated or actual date of final data collection for the primary outcome measure — not the date the project as a whole wraps up.
The lesson generalises: treat registry dates as planning estimates, not events. Always check the "last update posted" field on the record itself before drawing conclusions about currency.
How the other eight ibogaine records compare
NCT04313712 is one of nine studies in the registry with ibogaine listed as an intervention. Sorted by status, the picture is clarifying:
| Status | Count | Studies |
|---|---|---|
| Active, not recruiting | 2 | NCT04313712 (Stanford, observational, US); NCT07717866 (Axial Therapeutic Research, observational, US) |
| Recruiting | 1 | NCT07226570 (UC Irvine, observational, US) |
| Completed | 3 | NCT03380728 (University of São Paulo, interventional, Brazil); NCT04003948 (International Center for Ethnobotanical Education, interventional, Spain); NCT05029401 (atai Therapeutics, interventional, United Kingdom) |
| Withdrawn | 2 | NCT06810765 (Johns Hopkins, interventional, US); NCT05180149 (observational) |
| Unknown | 1 | NCT05516823 (observational) |
Now look at what that table reveals — a pattern far more informative than any single status line:
Every completed interventional ibogaine trial in the registry was conducted outside the United States. Brazil, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The one US-based interventional study on the books, sponsored by Johns Hopkins, carries the status Withdrawn — meaning it closed without enrolling a single participant.
Every US ibogaine study in the registry, without exception, is observational.
That is the structural reality of American ibogaine research as of 2026: US institutions can currently study people who received ibogaine elsewhere, but the trials that actually administer it have been running in other countries. It is a direct downstream consequence of ibogaine's Schedule I classification, which we cover in our guide to ibogaine's legal status in the United States.
That picture is beginning to shift — state-level funding initiatives, most notably Texas's $50 million commitment to ibogaine research, are explicitly designed to move US work from observation into properly controlled trials.
What NCT04313712 cannot tell you
Even read perfectly, this record has hard limits. It cannot tell you:
- Whether ibogaine works. n=30, observational, no control group, self-selected participants. It is hypothesis-generating.
- What dose or protocol was used. Registry summaries are not protocols. Because participants obtained treatment independently, protocols likely varied between them.
- What the safety profile is in the general population. Thirty veterans with blast exposure is not a population-level safety dataset. Ibogaine carries real cardiac risk — QT interval prolongation in particular — which is why screening and continuous cardiac monitoring are non-negotiable in any responsible setting.
- Whether you are a candidate. No registry entry can answer that. It requires an ECG, a full medication review, and a clinician.
If you want the mechanistic background rather than the registry bookkeeping, start with how ibogaine works in the brain, or browse our ibogaine research hub.
Verify any of this yourself in about 30 seconds
You never need to take a third party's word for a trial's status — including ours. The ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 is public and requires no key:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/api/v2/studies/NCT04313712?fields=NCTId,BriefTitle,OverallStatus,StudyType,LeadSponsorName
Paste that into any browser. Swap in any NCT ID. The three fields worth checking every single time:
overallStatus— is it actually recruiting?studyType— OBSERVATIONAL or INTERVENTIONAL? This determines whether anyone is being given anything.- Last update posted — is this record current, or has it sat untouched for two years?
Those three fields will protect you from the overwhelming majority of bad reporting about psychedelic research.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still join NCT04313712? No. "Active, not recruiting" means enrollment is closed. There is no waitlist.
Did Stanford give veterans ibogaine? No. The study is observational. It measured outcomes in veterans who obtained treatment independently, through their own channels. Stanford did not administer, supply, or assign it.
Is "active, not recruiting" a bad sign? No. It is a normal, healthy mid-to-late stage in a study's lifecycle. The statuses that indicate a problem are Terminated, Suspended, and Withdrawn.
Why does it say completion February 2025 but still show as active? Registry records are updated manually by sponsors and frequently lag. Analysis and follow-up also continue past the primary completion date.
Are there any US trials that actually administer ibogaine? Not in the current registry. Every US ibogaine study listed is observational; the sole US interventional entry was withdrawn before enrolling anyone.
What is NCT07226570? The one ibogaine study currently recruiting in the US — a UC Irvine neuroimaging study in opioid use disorder. It is also observational, using MRI and EEG. Details are in our breakdown of ibogaine studies recruiting in the United States.
The bottom line
Active, not recruiting on NCT04313712 means one thing: the Stanford study is closed to new participants but not yet formally wrapped up. It is not an access route, not a verdict on efficacy, and not a sign of failure.
The more important finding sits one layer below the status field — this study, like every other US ibogaine record in the registry, is observational. Understanding that distinction is what separates an accurate reading of ibogaine research from the confident misreadings that circulate constantly.
If you are researching options for treatment-resistant trauma or blast-related injury, our clinical team can talk you through what the evidence does and does not currently support at our physician-supervised ibogaine treatment clinic, and our PTSD, cPTSD and TBI treatment programme page covers our screening requirements in detail.
Registry data in this article was retrieved from the ClinicalTrials.gov API v2 on 7 August 2026 and reflects the record as posted on that date. Statuses change — verify before relying on any of it.
Medical disclaimer: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Ibogaine is a Schedule I controlled substance in the United States and carries serious cardiac risks, including QT prolongation and fatal arrhythmia. It must never be taken outside a medically supervised setting with pre-treatment cardiac screening. Nothing here should be interpreted as a recommendation to seek or avoid any treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.
If you are in crisis: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, US) or dial your local emergency number. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.
Begin Your Journey
MindScape Retreat offers medically supervised ibogaine treatment in Cozumel, Mexico. Speak with our clinical team to learn if you are a candidate.
