You or someone close to you takes a benzodiazepine for anxiety and hates the fog, the sleepiness, and the worry about getting hooked. An online forum says Selank, a Russian nasal peptide, can smooth out those side effects or even replace the pill. Before anyone changes a prescription, it helps to know what the studies behind that idea actually did.
The claim traces to two small Russian clinical studies from the same research group. In them, Selank given alongside phenazepam, a benzodiazepine prescribed in Russia but not approved in the United States, was reported to speed improvement and reduce side effects. Neither study offers evidence that Selank makes it safe to cut or stop a benzodiazepine on your own.
The 2014 comparison with phenazepam
Medvedev and colleagues compared Selank with phenazepam in 60 patients with phobic anxiety and somatoform disorders, publishing in a Russian psychiatry journal. The English abstract reports a “pronounced” anti-anxiety effect and a mild effect on thinking, and says the effect persisted for a week after the last treatment. It does not report group sizes, scores, blinding, or how patients were assigned, so a reader cannot judge how large the difference was.
The 2015 add-on study
The same group then compared phenazepam alone in 30 patients with phenazepam plus Selank in 40. They tracked anxiety and depression scales, clinical impressions, memory and attention tests, side effect ratings, and quality of life. According to the abstract, improvement on the Hamilton scale arrived sooner with the combination, and phenazepam’s side effects, including attention and memory problems, sedation, oversleeping, sexual problems, emotional flatness, and dizziness on standing, were milder during treatment and after the tranquilizer was withdrawn.
The abstract does not describe a placebo spray or blinding, and the groups were unequal in size. Both papers list co-authors from the Institute of Molecular Genetics and the Mental Health Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and both full texts are in Russian, so most readers outside Russia can check only the short English abstracts.
Where this leaves a worried patient
Two unblinded studies from one group, without placebo control, are a starting hypothesis, not a treatment plan. The medicine in them, phenazepam, is not what most American patients take, so results may not transfer to alprazolam, lorazepam, or clonazepam. And the studies did not test Selank as a replacement; patients still took the benzodiazepine, and withdrawal was managed by doctors.
That last point matters most. The FDA added a boxed warning to the whole benzodiazepine class in 2020 because abuse, dependence, and withdrawal reactions can be serious, and stopping suddenly or lowering too fast can cause severe, sometimes life-threatening withdrawal. A research peptide bought online does not change that risk.
If benzodiazepine side effects or dependence worry you, raise it with the prescriber and ask about a supervised taper and other treatments with stronger evidence, such as cognitive behavioral therapy or antidepressant options. Do not stack an unregulated peptide on top of a sedative, and do not use one as a reason to stop. Not medical advice.
Sources
- Medvedev VE et al. A comparison of the anxiolytic effect and tolerability of selank and phenazepam in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova, 2014 (PubMed)
- Medvedev VE et al. Optimization of the treatment of anxiety disorders with selank. Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova, 2015 (PubMed)
- FDA: Boxed warning updated to improve safe use of benzodiazepine drug class (2020)
Related reading
- Checking the evidence when an anxiety ad names Selank
- Semax, Selank’s sister peptide, and its human evidence
By The Everyday Brief. AI-assisted drafting with automated source and editorial checks. Sources fetched 2026-10-22 PT. Not medical advice.