A terminally ill 60-year-old woman’s lifelong debilitating stutter disappeared after she was prescribed low-dose ketamine for depression, according to a US case report. 

The unexpected effect, which began within a day of starting the drug, proved to be “life-changing” in her final month of life in hospice care, the doctors wrote in the Journal of Medical Case Reports. 

“The patient could consistently speak freely for the first time since early childhood,” they said. 

“This effect itself gave relief from depression as she communicated with ease.”