Semax vs Selank

Semax and Selank get searched together so often that they sound like one product with two flavors. They're sister peptides, both seven amino acids long, both developed in Russia and both sold there as prescription nasal drops. The useful question isn't which one is better, it's which problem you have on a given day.

In day-to-day use, plenty of people skip the Russian daily schedule. Semax goes in the morning or 15 to 30 minutes before the work they want sharper for, and Selank 15 to 40 minutes before something that makes them nervous, like a presentation or a social event, or in the evening to let go of the day. Both also run as short courses of up to 14 days with one to three weeks off, and people report Semax fading after two to three weeks of daily use while Selank's calm builds quietly over a week or two. All of that's reported experience. The Russian drops were studied as daily courses, for stroke recovery and optic nerve disease with Semax and for anxiety disorders with Selank.

Semax is the focus one. It's built from a short piece of ACTH, the hormone your brain uses to tell your adrenal glands to make cortisol, with the hormone part taken out. In Russia it's prescribed after a stroke and for optic nerve disease, and outside Russia most people buy it for sharper focus and more mental stamina. The clearest human finding is a brain-scan study where one dose of a stronger nasal solution changed activity in a brain network within twenty minutes in healthy volunteers, a sign it acts on the brain, if not that it'll find your car keys.

Selank is the calm one. It's built from tuftsin, a tiny piece of an immune protein your body already makes, and it's approved in Russia as nasal drops for anxiety. People reach for it when they feel wound up rather than foggy, the racing mind at 3pm or 3am, and they want the edge taken off without the drowsy side of a sedative. Its best-known study compared it with a benzodiazepine, the sedative class that includes Valium and Xanax, in people with anxiety disorders and reported a similar calming effect with fewer side effects. Independent replication is limited, so it's a lead rather than a settled answer.

The shorthand people use is Semax for switched on and Selank for calmer. Think of it as the second cup of coffee and the deep breath before the meeting, two different fixes for two different kinds of bad afternoon. Our focus and mood page lists the other compounds people weigh for the same jobs.

Semax dosage chart by route dosage guide → · Selank dosage chart by route dosage guide →

Where these come from: the injected amounts and the split patterns are vendor and community convention for both, with no named clinician or study behind them, the Selank split is simply the daily amount halved, our math, and the 14-day courses are borrowed from the approved drops. The drop schedules come from the Russian prescribing information for Semax 0.1% and Selank 0.15% nasal drops, the Selank daily total is our math from a 75 mcg drop because its label doesn't state a drop size, and the Semax hospital amount comes from a Russian study of stroke care. The units to draw, the spray math and how long a vial lasts are on the Semax dosage chart and the Selank dosage chart.

The injected amounts look close, a few hundred micrograms a day for each, A mixed vial of either one goes on a 28-day clock in the fridge, so a 10 mg vial of Semax at 600 mcg a day lasts 16 days and a 10 mg vial of Selank at 500 mcg a day lasts 20.

"Can you take Semax and Selank together" is one of the most searched questions about either one, and people do. The pattern they describe is Semax in the morning and Selank later in the day, each at its own amount from its own dosage chart and each on its own short course. It comes from the two being developed side by side in Russia, and no study or label tests them together, so it's a reported practice rather than a tested one.

The reason people give for pairing them is that Semax switches you on and Selank keeps that from tipping into jittery. Some people who find Semax a little too stimulating on its own add Selank for exactly that reason. It's the same logic as the coffee and the walk around the block, one to get going and one to keep it from fizzing over.

There's also a premixed Semax and Selank blend, sold as powder in one vial, and 9 vendors we track list one. It saves a vial and some fridge space, but every draw gives you both at the same moment and in a fixed ratio, so you lose the morning and evening split and can't raise one without raising the other. No study or label sets an amount for the blend, so people work from each half's own numbers and check how many milligrams of each the vial holds.

1. Oros Research30 mg · $59.99 $2.00/mg
2. Alpha Peptides10 mg · $21.88 $2.19/mg
3. Skye Peptides30 mg · $69.00 $2.30/mg
4. Core Peptides25 mg · $60.00 $2.40/mg
5. Glow Aminos10 mg · $24.20 $2.42/mg

1. Glow Aminos10 mg · $24.20 $2.42/mg
2. Flawless Compounds10 mg · $24.20 $2.42/mg
3. Next Gen Peptides30 mg · $75.00 $2.50/mg
4. Alpha Peptides10 mg · $26.06 $2.61/mg
5. Alpha Labs10 mg · $27.99 $2.80/mg

Compare both in the app. Compare the real price per milligram rather than the price of one vial, and check the name on the listing, because N-Acetyl versions of both sit beside the plain ones and the amounts above don't carry across to them. Look for a vendor that publishes independent purity and identity testing for the batch you're buying, and every vendor on PPL carries a confidence label, from High confidence to New vendor.

Semax: the Russian label for the drops lists only mild irritation of the nose with long use. With research vials, people most often report feeling wired or restless, especially at larger amounts, and trouble sleeping after afternoon or evening doses, and most handle both by taking less or taking it earlier. The label lists anxiety disorders, pregnancy, breastfeeding, acute psychosis and a history of seizures as reasons not to use the drops. In rats, Semax nudged the dopamine and serotonin systems and strengthened the effect of amphetamine, and we found no study of it taken with ADHD medication or an antidepressant.

Selank: in its Russian anxiety study it was reported as better tolerated than the benzodiazepine it was compared with. With research vials, people report drowsiness or a flat feeling at higher amounts, irritation in the nose with home-mixed sprays, and occasional redness or a lump where they injected. The label rules it out in pregnancy, breastfeeding and under 18. In a rat study, Selank given with diazepam changed how diazepam worked, and we found no study in people, so taking it with a prescribed anxiety medication is outside anything that's been tested.

The two point in opposite directions, wired on one side and drowsy on the other, which helps when you take both on separate schedules and makes it harder to tell which one is behind a reaction in a blend. For either one, the bigger everyday unknown is what's in the vial, since the approved drops are a regulated medicine and a research vial isn't. A mixed vial that turns cloudy goes in the trash.

Both are sold for research, and the human evidence is mostly from Russia and mostly with nasal drops, not the vial you're mixing. You knew that, it's why you're reading this and not the label.