Ibogaine is sought increasingly for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, especially among combat veterans. Meanwhile, scientists are still trying to understand how ibogaine helps people with substance use disorders break their addictions and skip the painful withdrawal process. If ibogaine does prevent relapses, it “may prove to be truly transformative for addiction medicine,” says Deborah Mash, an emeritus professor at the University of Miami and CEO of DemeRx, a company working toward FDA approval of ibogaine.