Emily Chan
When it comes to treating stuttering in speech, it may be worthwhile to utilize psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
A team of speech and psychology researchers from New York University (NYU) looked into how psychedelics impacted people who stutter. They concluded that users experienced benefits.
“Given the positive effects of psychedelics on conditions like anxiety and PTSD, which share symptoms with stuttering, we think that investigating the potential impact of psychedelics on stuttering can be a fruitful area of research,” said Eric S. Jackson, lead author of the study and associate professor of communicative sciences and disorders at NYU.
It is thought that the mind-altering compounds may help to stabilize the neural imbalances that lead to impaired speech control.
Jackson and colleagues used the social forum network Reddit to analyze 114 posts that were made between 2012 and 2022. The posts were from 104 users with keywords related to speech, stuttering, and generic/specific names for psychedelics.
The team examined the use of LSD and psilocybin and grouped Reddit posts under broad themes of positive, negative, and neutral effects.
Then, they came up with five subcategories based on the substance’s effects—behavior (habits), emotions (altered state/feelings), cognition (mindfulness/cognitive flexibility), beliefs (metaphysical beliefs/suggestibility), and social connection (connectedness/empathy).
Around 74 percent of users reported positive effects overall, especially related to behavioral and emotional change. They experienced reduced stuttering and feelings of anxiety.
Among people who stutter, social anxiety levels are high, which can contribute to worsening fluency and speech-motor performance. It appeared that psychedelics alleviated the anxiety of the majority of users, allowing for improved speech control.
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