Onsite Ibogaine-Bridged Taper Cohort 2026 — Methodology & Hedges

Quick Answer

What is MindScape's onsite taper cohort dataset?

Medically reviewed by Dr. Arellano, M.D. — Last reviewed May 2026

Who is in the cohort

The cohort comprises patients who (1) completed medical screening, (2) met cardiac, hepatic, psychiatric, and medication-class eligibility criteria, (3) were admitted to the onsite taper protocol on their pre-arrival prescribed medication, and (4) had their flood-dose attempt or non-attempt recorded in the admissions log. Patients who declined enrollment, were screened out, or withdrew before the taper began are NOT in the denominator.

The cohort window is January 2024 — April 2026. Earlier admissions predate the standardized data-capture form and are excluded.

From inquiry to flood dose — the funnel

The 98% figure is calculated against the enrolled denominator (≈ 540), not against total inquiries. This is the standard treatment-cohort convention but worth stating explicitly.

Who is excluded and why

• QTc above eligibility threshold
  Cardiac risk — referred for cardiology workup.
• Active psychotic disorder or untreated bipolar I in mania
  Psychiatric stability required prior to ibogaine exposure.
• Advanced liver disease (Child-Pugh B/C)
  Ibogaine hepatic metabolism; impaired clearance risk.
• Pregnancy or breastfeeding
  Insufficient safety data.
• Methadone or long-acting opioid without pre-arrival bridge
  Requires physician-supervised crossover to short-acting opioid before admission.
• Patient-elected withdrawal before taper start
  Excluded from cohort; not counted in denominator.

What "taper completion" means

A patient is counted as having completed the taper when ALL of the following are met and recorded in the admissions log:

• Medication of pre-arrival class fully discontinued (or, for benzodiazepines, crossed over to diazepam below 10 mg-equivalent).
• Baseline QTc within eligibility threshold on serial 12-lead EKG.
• Potassium and magnesium normal; liver and kidney function normal.
• 72 hours symptom-stable on the bridging TA dose.
• Ibogaine HCl flood dose administered per protocol.

Patients in whom any criterion is unmet at the planned flood-dose window are paused, slowed, or — in a small number of cases — referred back to their prescribing physician with a written summary. These are not pushed into a flood dose and are not counted as completions.

Hedges — what this dataset is not

• It is NOT a long-term remission, abstinence, or relapse-free survival rate. The 98% figure is admissions-to-flood-dose (taper completion) only.
• It is NOT a randomized controlled trial. There is no comparator arm, no blinding, and no placebo.
• It is NOT a comparative-effectiveness study against home tapering, benzodiazepine cover, or methadone bridging. Such head-to-head data has not been published.
• It is NOT FDA registration data. Ibogaine remains a Schedule I substance in the US and is not approved by the FDA. MindScape operates in Cozumel, Quintana Roo, Mexico, where ibogaine is unscheduled.
• It is NOT a substitute for the peer-reviewed literature. We point to Glue 2016, Mash 2018, Davis 2017, Brown & Alper 2018, Knuijver 2022, and Cherian/Stanford 2024 for the published evidence base.

Published literature we anchor to

Our internal protocol decisions are anchored to the published ibogaine literature. We make no claim that our cohort replicates these studies — we cite them as the safety, pharmacokinetic, and outcome backbone within which our protocol is designed.

1. Glue P, et al. (2016). Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development, 5(6), 460-468 — noribogaine PK / safety.
2. Mash DC, et al. (2018). Frontiers in Pharmacology, 9, 529 — opioid & cocaine outcomes.
3. Davis AK, et al. (2017). Journal of Psychedelic Studies, 1(2), 65-73 — subjective effectiveness.
4. Brown TK, Alper K. (2018). American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 44(1), 24-36 — OUD detoxification outcomes.
5. Knuijver T, et al. (2022). Addiction, 117(1), 118-128 — dose-response & safety.
6. Cherian KN, et al. (2024). Nature Medicine, 30, 373-381 — magnesium-ibogaine in veterans with TBI.

Referring clinicians: how to request the dataset

De-identified summary tables (medication class, taper duration, completion status, adverse-event grade) are available on written request to referring clinicians. Patient-level identified data is not released. Requests:

Email: medical@mindscaperetreat.com
Subject line: Cohort 2026 methodology request — [your institution]
We respond within 5 business days with a data-use agreement template.