The ‘very potent’ supplement once given to Soviet cosmonauts can curb anxiety

Houston, we have a chill pill.

Back in the 1960s, Soviet scientists developed a sweet little supplement that they stocked in the space kits of cosmonauts — the Russian version of an astronaut — to keep them cool under pressure.

Still a popular over-the-counter option in Russia today, the drug promises to curb anxiety, cure insomnia, manage alcohol withdrawal and PTSD and promote clear thinking.

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It can even give you a bit of a high — but experts are warning that phenibut can also be a Red Scare in disguise.

Utah recently classified it as a Schedule I controlled substance, placing it among the “most dangerous drugs with no accepted medical use.”

Phenibut’s soothing properties come from its ability to mimic GABA — the neurotransmitter that mellows out brain activity — which makes it not dissimilar to benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium.

Writer Delynn Willis started taking phenibut, sold under the brand names Anvifen, Fenibut and Noofen, precisely because she wanted to avoid the potentially addictive properties of benzos.

A friend told her the Russian drug was dependence-free.

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However, things quickly went south.

“After I had been using it for a few weeks, I started to notice I needed higher and higher doses to get the same effect,” she told Discover Magazine.

When she tried to wean herself off the drug, the withdrawal symptoms were out of this world.

“My anxiety skyrocketed, my temper shortened and I experienced dizzy spells,” she said.

“The drug has very potent psychoactive properties,” University of Michigan psychiatrist Edward Jouney told the outlet at the time.

“There’s evidence it can cause addiction.” 

Jouney noted that it’s possible that phenibut could be used as an effective treatment for anxiety under strict medical supervision.

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While it is technically legal in most of the US and sold online for as little as $50, buying phenibut this way is a dubious prospect.

Telehealth companies aren’t held to the same quality assurance standards as doctors, who can’t prescribe it because it’s not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for medical use.

Poison control centers have been flooded with phenibut-related calls since 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with reports describing agitation, heart irregularities, confusion — and even coma.

In 2019, the FDA sent warning letters to three companies in the US for marketing phenibut as a “dietary supplement.”

Alabama took matters into its own hands and classified it as a Schedule II controlled substance in 2021, making it illegal.

As of May, it is also illegal to possess, distribute or manufacture phenibut in Utah.

While low doses — under a gram — might be safe, side effects can include vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, insomnia, depression, hallucinations, tremors and difficulty breathing.

It can be easy to become dependent, which can lead to death.

“The reported adverse events of phenibut are just scratching surface of a largely unregulated online drug market with no standards of quality assurance,” pharmacologists Janet Cheung and Jonathan Penm wrote in The Conversation.

“So for those students seeking the competitive edge, it looks like those extra marks are not worth it after all.”