BPC-157 has been getting some bad press lately. A lot of people have started to claim that this seemingly harmless peptide could cause anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure), depression, and other mood disorders, and the fear is spreading.
As someone who has directly or indirectly influenced thousands of people into using this peptide, I have decided to analyze these claims by diving deeper into the scientific literature, spending some time in the forums, and talking to dozens of followers who have used it.
In this article, I will share my findings with you and attempt to answer the question in the title.
As you probably know, BPC-157 is a research chemical that has never been approved for human use. The scientific data about it is rather limited, and most studies have been conducted in animals, so we have to take them with a grain of salt.
The only study on BPC-157 that explores its effect on anhedonia is a 2022 paper titled “BPC 157, L-NAME, L-Arginine, NO-Relation, in the Suited Rat Ketamine Models Resembling ‘Negative-Like’ Symptoms of Schizophrenia” by the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
The goal of this study was to see whether BPC-157 and two variants of L-Arginine could counteract the negative “schizophrenia-like” symptoms of Ketamine in Wistar Rats.
The conclusion they came to regarding BPC-157 is that it “counteracted ketamine-cognition dysfunction, social withdrawal, and anhedonia, and exerted additional anxiolytic [relaxing] effect,” meaning that it did the opposite of what people are claiming it does.
This study was conducted on rats, and said rats were under the influence of a powerful drug called Ketamine. As far as I know, the people claiming they got anhedonia from BPC-157 were not Ketamine-addicted rodents.
Multiple studies have explored the effects of BPC-157 on the gut-brain axis, addiction withdrawal, the central nervous system and traumatic brain injuries, and the conclusion they all come to is that BPC-157 can in fact help resolve all these issues.
While these are good news, these studies prove that BPC-157 acts on the brain, and that’s where issues could arise in people with abnormal brain chemistry profiles…
I have personally used BPC-157 many times, I have helped family members and friends use it, I have coached dozens if not hundreds of people on how to use it, and I have indirectly thousands of people into using it through my ebooks and public content.
After talking about it for 4 years, I have only come across two cases of BPC-157-induced anhedonia in my audience.
I am not trying to downplay this side-effect by pointing out the fact that the only 2 people who have reported this side-effect to me were not exactly mentally healthy people, because you can find plenty of similar cases on Reddit and other forums. It is also very possible that more members of my audience felt similar symptoms on BPC-157 and decided not to tell me about it.
My theory is that this side-effect of BPC-157 affects an incredibly small percentage of users. Based on the two cases I have first-hand experience with, and the dozens of cases I have managed to find on the internet, it appears that this side-effect tends to affect people with an unstable / altered brain chemistry:
The interesting thing is that BPC-157 is incredibly useful for people with these issues. You can find countless reports of people using BPC-157 to successfully deal with addiction withdrawal symptoms, heal brain injuries, and improve symptoms of depression, so it is incredibly hard to predict whether BPC-157 will cause anhedonia in someone or not.
Even though BPC-157 is a miraculous peptide that can do wonders for 99% of users, it is capable of causing anhedonia, depression and other mood disorders in a very tiny percentage of users. If you have mental health issues and/or you have struggled with substance abuse, you may be more likely to experience these side-effects than a regular person.
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