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What it is
A nine-amino-acid peptide isolated in the 1970s from the cerebral venous blood of sleeping rabbits, named for the delta-wave sleep it was associated with.
How it is proposed to work
Proposed effects on sleep architecture and on stress and pain responses. The mechanism has never been firmly established, and its endogenous role remains debated more than fifty years after isolation — which is itself a finding.
Approved medical uses
None. DSIP has no approved human medical indication in the jurisdictions we track. Any use is outside an approved label.
Human research
Each entry states what the study found and, separately, what it cannot show.
- Controlled human trial1992n = 16
Double-blind laboratory sleep trial in chronic insomnia: no major benefit
Finding. The authors concluded that short-term treatment of chronic insomnia with DSIP "is not likely to be of major therapeutic benefit". Sixteen chronic insomniac patients slept five consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory under a double-blind matched-pairs parallel-groups design; in the afternoons before the last three nights, half received intravenous DSIP and half a glucose placebo. Objective sleep quality did favour DSIP — "higher sleep efficiency and shorter sleep latency with DSIP as compared to placebo" — and one measure of subjective tiredness decreased within the DSIP group. But the authors' own analysis suggested the statistically significant effects were "weak and in part could be due to an incidental change in the placebo group", and no other measure, subjective sleep quality included, changed.
Limitation. One small trial — sixteen patients divided between two parallel groups, dosed on three afternoons, published in 1992 — and modern replication under contemporary methodology is essentially absent. The measures were sleep structure, objective and subjective sleep quality and subjective tiredness, so the trial speaks to the sleep claim rather than to the stress or pain claims made for this peptide. Because the authors themselves suggested part of the statistical effect could be due to an incidental change in the placebo group, even the favourable sleep numbers carry little weight.
Preclinical research
Animal and laboratory work. Useful for generating hypotheses; it cannot establish that something works in people.
No preclinical studies catalogued.
Potential safety concerns
- CautionInsufficient
No modern systematic human safety dataset.
- CautionEstablished
Persistent insomnia has causes worth diagnosing, and cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia has better outcome evidence than anything in this library.
Known interactions and contraindication considerations
- Uncharacterised. Combination with sedatives is unstudied.
This list is not exhaustive and is not a substitute for a clinician reviewing your full medication history.
Regulatory status
Status is shown per jurisdiction and is accurate only as of the date stated. Where a compound is approved, the approval is bound to a specific formulation, manufacturer and indication — shown in the detail column.
| Jurisdiction | Standing | Detail |
|---|---|---|
Russian Federation Ministry of Health / Roszdravnadzor | Listed as of 11 Aug 2026 | A DSIP-containing preparation has been marketed in Russia. Marketed in Russia. Our check could not confirm current status against the state register itself — the certificate details in circulation come from commercial drug references, which retain entries after registrations lapse. Verify directly before relying on this. |
United States FDA | Under consideration as of 11 Aug 2026 | Has appeared in compounding-category discussion. No outcome stated — the primary record was not retrievable. |
European Union EMA | Unapproved / investigational as of 11 Aug 2026 | No marketing authorisation. |
India CDSCO | Unapproved / investigational as of 11 Aug 2026 | Not approved for human use. A first-time synthetically manufactured peptide falls under the new-drug pathway. |
How it is being used
What the grey community actually runs, the reasoning they give, and our read on whether it follows from known biology. This is observation, not evidence, and not a recommendation.
No community use documented for this compound yet. Absence here means our editorial team has not reviewed and verified a pattern — not that none exists.
Active clinical trials
No registered trials currently tracked for DSIP.
What remains unknown
The questions that would change our assessment if they were answered.
- Does it affect sleep architecture in humans under modern polysomnography?
- What is its actual endogenous role, if any?
References
Editorial change history
When we change a grade or a regulatory note, we log it here rather than editing quietly.
Dossier created. Russian registration particulars excluded as unverifiable.
Spotted something wrong? Tell us — we publish corrections.