Could Psychedelics Be the Future of Brain Injury Treatment?
Having worked as an assistant psychologist in neurorehabilitation, I have seen how persistent and difficult recovery from brain injury can be. Alongside this, I recently completed a postgraduate certification in Psychedelics at the University of Exeter, which led me to start looking more seriously at where these two worlds might intersect.
From a neurological perspective, the rationale is difficult to ignore. Psychedelics are known to act on serotonin systems, particularly the 5-HT2A receptor, which plays a key role in cognition, mood, and learning. More importantly, they appear to promote neuroplasticity, enhancing the brain’s ability to form new connections, reorganise itself, and adapt.
In the context of brain injury, where recovery often depends on the brain’s capacity to rewire and compensate for damage, this presents a compelling theoretical pathway. For a long time, however, this remained largely hypothetical in relation to brain injury itself.
What shifted this from theory into something more tangible was emerging clinical research involving Ibogaine. A recent study conducted by Stanford University examined magnesium–ibogaine treatment in a group of veterans with traumatic brain injury, alongside PTSD, depression, and anxiety. The results were striking. Participants showed significant improvements across multiple domains, including reductions in PTSD symptoms, depression, and anxiety, as well as measurable improvements in cognitive functioning and overall wellbeing following treatment. Importantly, these effects were observed after a single treatment course, with benefits still present at follow-up.
The Stanford study provided one of the first real indications that psychedelics could have relevance not just in mental health, but in neurological recovery.
At the same time, it’s difficult to ignore the resistance this area of research is likely to face. Psychedelics sit outside conventional pharmaceutical models, and that creates inevitable friction. When healthcare systems, regulatory bodies, and pharmaceutical industries are closely aligned, approaches that challenge existing frameworks are unlikely to move forward without pushback. That doesn’t stop the research, but it does influence the pace at which it is recognised, funded, and integrated.
It was from this position, working closely within neurorehabilitation while understanding the emerging science behind psychedelics, that the connection began to feel increasingly difficult to ignore. With little movement from UK institutions in this area, I decided to explore it myself.
I conducted a qualitative study with five individuals who had experienced traumatic brain injury and had used psychedelics after their injury. Each participant took part in a semi-structured interview, speaking in depth about their experiences of cognition, mental health, and recovery over time.
Going into the study, I was particularly interested in whether psychedelics might be associated with improvements in cognitive functioning, mental health, and trauma-related symptoms, areas that are often difficult to treat effectively following brain injury.
The data was analysed using thematic analysis, allowing patterns to emerge directly from participants’ accounts rather than imposing a fixed framework.
What emerged aligned with these expectations, but also went beyond them. Alongside changes in cognition and reductions in trauma related distress, a third theme developed unexpectedly: a shift in how individuals related to themselves, including greater insight, acceptance, and self-compassion following their experiences.
Trauma Relief and Emotional Stability
The first theme centred around trauma relief and emotional stability. Participants consistently described reductions in anxiety, emotional distress, and long-standing trauma-related symptoms following their experiences. For some, this shift was immediate and noticeable in everyday life. As one participant put it, “After that first psilocybin session, I wasn’t waking up with the same anxiety, it felt like something had lifted.” Others described a more gradual but meaningful change in their emotional baseline, with less reactivity and a greater sense of steadiness.
Temporary Cognitive Lift
The second theme, and arguably the most striking, was a temporary post-dose “cognitive lift.” Participants described periods of improved memory, clarity, coordination, and overall cognitive functioning following psychedelic use, particularly after higher dose experiences. These changes were often framed in contrast to their usual post-injury baseline, making even subtle improvements feel significant. One participant described it simply as, “It was like someone turned the memory dial up,” while another noted, “In the weeks after, I’m sharper and I can remember things more easily… thinking just flows better.” While these effects were typically temporary, they suggest a potential window of enhanced cognitive function that could have meaningful implications for recovery.
Greater Insight, Increased Self-Acceptance and Compassion
The third theme emerged unexpectedly, and in many ways added a deeper layer to the findings. Beyond cognition and symptom relief, participants described a shift in how they related to themselves following their experiences. This included greater insight into their behaviour, increased self-acceptance, and a more compassionate relationship with themselves after injury. As one participant reflected, “I could finally see how the injury shaped my behaviour and stop beating myself up for it.” Another described it as “accepting the injury… meeting myself with more empathy.” This shift in self-perception was not something I had set out to explore, but it appeared consistently within the interviews.
In the United States, momentum is already building. Lawmakers in Texas have approved state-funded research into ibogaine treatment, marking a significant step toward more formal clinical investigation. While still early, this reflects a growing recognition that these compounds may have relevance beyond traditional mental health applications.
At a mechanistic level, this also overlaps with the work of Gül Dölen, whose research on critical periods suggests that psychedelics reopen windows of heightened neuroplasticity in the adult brain. In recent work, her team demonstrated that certain psychedelics could induce extended states of plasticity, effectively reopening a learning window that is typically closed after early development, with effects that persist for weeks. This idea, that there are time-limited states where the brain becomes more adaptable and receptive to change, maps not only onto the “cognitive lift” described by participants in this study, but also onto the deeper shifts in emotional processing, insight, and self-perception that were reported.
In a UK context, these findings point toward a clear need for further that can bring psychedelic-assisted approaches into brain injury treatment to support cognitive function, improve mental health, and address trauma-related symptoms following brain injury, research that has the potential to shape the future of neurorehabilitation.
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