In the documentary Fantastic Fungi, mycologist Paul Stamets tells a personal story about how, as a child, he had a terrible stutter, going through 6 years of speech therapy – until he was ‘cured’ of it instantly when he climbed a tree during a thunderstorm while tripping on magic mushrooms.
He gave details of the story on an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience the year previous:
Did the ‘shrooms help him overcome the stutter, or was it just a coincidence (or the product of some other element of the experience, such as the extreme fear he felt)? A recent paper provides some support for the former theory: in “Psychedelics in developmental stuttering to modulate brain functioning: a new therapeutic perspective“, researchers note that brain metabolism and connectivity can be modified by psychedelics, which have been shown to improve some psychiatric conditions – and that there is some anecdotal evidence that suggests they may have beneficial effects on stuttering.
Developmental stuttering (that is, where onset is during childhood) still has no definitive treatment – speech therapy is the most commonly used treatment and has some success, but relapse is common, the researchers note. But psychedelics may actually provide a way to ‘rewire’ the brain to overcome the problem for good:
These drugs may be able to facilitate acute periods of psychological/cognitive flexibility that may promote neural plasticity that aids in changing behavioral “maladaptive” patterns. In this regard, this perspective article puts forth the idea that psychedelic drugs might complement existing behavioral therapies, with potential fluency-facilitating effects and contributing to reduced psychosocial impact (e.g., anxiety and social avoidance), thus improving the quality of life of PWS (persons who stutter).
As support for the idea, the researchers refer to another recent study that analyzed 114 reports on Reddit from self-identified stutterers who took psychedelics. They found that the majority of users (74.0%) “reported positive overall short-term effects particularly related to behavioral and emotional change (e.g., reduced stuttering and anxiety)” – although it should be noted that negative effects were also reported in 10-15% of cases.
Another anecdotal case mentioned is that of a 60-year-old woman who had been a lifelong stutterer, who was prescribed ketamine for depression, and experienced an almost immediate resolution of her stuttering.
The research team say they are now “actively trying to progress toward the obtaining of funding for conducting sponsored RCTs (randomized controlled studies)”, drawing upon the scientific rationale outlined in their paper.
