Supplements to Reduce Anxiety & Stress

A synthetic heptapeptide anxiolytic developed in Russia as an analogue of the immunopeptide tuftsin, dosed intranasally. Honest appraisal: the evidence is limited and largely Russian — mostly rat/mouse anxiety and immune-modulation studies plus a small number of low-rigor human anxiety studies. There is essentially no independent Western replication, no large well-controlled trial, and no Western regulatory approval. It is not a regulated dietary supplement and is sold for research use only outside Russia.

A nine-amino-acid hormone with two very different stories. As an IV drug (Pitocin/Syntocinon) it is an established, supervised hospital medicine for inducing/augmenting labor and controlling postpartum bleeding. As a grey-market intranasal 'love/bonding/trust' spray it is largely UNPROVEN — the largest, most rigorous autism RCT (Sikich 2021, NEJM) was negative on its primary outcome, and replication of the famous single-dose social effects has been poor.

A grey-market research peptide whose human evidence is a handful of small, old, and equivocal studies — and no modern, adequately-powered trial. DSIP (delta sleep-inducing peptide) is a nine-amino-acid neuropeptide named in the 1970s for inducing delta (slow-wave) EEG activity. Small 1980s studies in severe insomnia (some open-label, some double-blind placebo-controlled) reported improved sleep, but the positive controlled trials were tiny and mostly from a single investigator, while an independent double-blind crossover trial concluded any sleep benefit was 'of little clinical significance.' A later randomized anaesthesia study found DSIP paradoxically lightened — not deepened — anaesthetic depth and reduced delta rhythm. Most newer data is from rats. DSIP is not an approved drug or a lawful dietary supplement; it is sold online as an unregulated injectable research chemical with unknown long-term safety. This entry exists to inform, not to recommend.

An atypical antidepressant — brand Stablon/Coaxil/Tatinol — approved and prescribed for major depression (and anxious depression) in parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America, where randomized trials show efficacy comparable to SSRIs and tricyclics, often with better tolerability at the therapeutic dose (12.5 mg three times daily). Mechanistically it is unusual: it modulates the stress system and enhances glutamatergic/hippocampal plasticity, and — the critical fact for harm reduction — it is a FULL MU-OPIOID RECEPTOR AGONIST. That opioid action explains both its antidepressant effect AND its abuse potential. In the United States it is NOT FDA-approved; the FDA has warned about it, and it is sold illicitly as an unapproved 'nootropic'/'supplement' ('Tianaa', 'Za Za', 'Pegasus') nicknamed 'gas station heroin'. The dominant recent US literature is not efficacy but ABUSE, DEPENDENCE, opioid-like WITHDRAWAL, overdose/toxicity (usually at supratherapeutic doses far above the clinical dose), and rising poison-center exposures. The honest framing: a genuine antidepressant abroad with proven short-term efficacy at the prescribed dose, but a mu-opioid agonist carrying real dependence/abuse/withdrawal/overdose risk and no US approval. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — not a recommendation, and not a substitute for clinician-supervised treatment.

A GABA-B receptor agonist — β-phenyl-GABA — developed in the USSR and still prescribed there as an anxiolytic and nootropic (brands Anvifen, Fenibut, Noofen). It is NOT approved in the US, UK or EU, where it is sold online as a 'nootropic' or anxiolytic 'supplement' and used recreationally for anxiety, sleep and sociability. A genuine but mostly Russian, limited clinical literature supports its anxiolytic use; the DOMINANT Western literature, however, is case reports of DEPENDENCE, rapid TOLERANCE, and severe WITHDRAWAL — agitation, insomnia, psychosis, delirium and seizures resembling baclofen or alcohol/benzodiazepine withdrawal — plus OVERDOSE/toxicity with reduced consciousness requiring intensive care. Phenibut is dangerous combined with alcohol or other CNS depressants. Frame: a real GABA-B anxiolytic carrying a serious dependence and withdrawal risk and almost no Western regulatory standing. Informational, harm-reduction entry only — not a recommendation.

A Russian 'actoprotector' — an atypical mild psychostimulant that is also anxiolytic and immunomodulatory — registered in Russia (as Ladasten) for asthenia/fatigue. Honest appraisal: there is a large multicenter Russian study in asthenic disorders and a coherent rat pharmacology (it raises dopaminergic tone and reduces fatigue), but the entire evidence base comes from a single Russian research lineage, has never been independently replicated in Western trials, and is grey-market and WADA-banned elsewhere. NOT a dietary supplement, NOT a longevity drug, and its long-term safety is unknown.