If you’re seeing signs of severe dehydration—like dizziness, confusion, or fainting—seek emergency medical help immediately. If you or someone you know has reached a point of “scromiting,” it’s definitely time to consult a healthcare provider. When cannabis is the underlying cause, learning about CHS can Substance abuse be a life-changing discovery. Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) is a condition that develops after prolonged, heavy marijuana use. It triggers intense, repeated vomiting episodes that can quickly disrupt your day-to-day life.
- If your vomiting, nausea or abdominal pain are constant or severe, bypass the visit with your primary care doctor entirely and go straight to the emergency department.
- The same factors apply to clinicians, specialists, nurses, and pharmacists, as well as other healthcare personnel, to consider the diagnosis in any chronic vomiting disorder, and to better inform themselves regarding the condition.
- However, not everyone who uses cannabis over the long haul will develop CHS.
- Typically, patients can only find relief from intense and persistent nausea by taking hot baths or showers.
Health Conditions
Since high-potency cannabis can pack a more powerful effect on the body, it’s possible that even fewer years of use could lead to CHS in some cases. The diagnostic criteria for CHS were ill-defined prior to the establishment of the Rome IV criteria of 2016.2223 Per the Rome IV criteria, all 3 of the following must be met to be diagnosed with CHS. They must be present for at least the last three months and the chs syndrome beginning of symptoms must be at least 6 months prior to the diagnosis being made.
- The best and only way to prevent or reduce your risk for CHS is to avoid or quit marijuana use.
- Studies show that about 80% of people with CHS recover when they completely stop using marijuana.
- It’s a relatively new and lesser-known health issue that causes severe nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain, often leading people to seek medical help.
- Cannabis interacts with receptors in the brain and digestive tract, and in cases of cannabis hyperemesis syndrome, these receptors may become overstimulated.
- And although there are some prescription medications for the disorder and its symptoms, the relief from these treatments is often incomplete and unsatisfying.
Prevalence of CHS
They’ll also examine your abdomen and may order tests to rule out other causes of vomiting. Diagnosing Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) can be challenging because its symptoms, like severe nausea and vomiting, are common in many conditions. However, certain patterns can help doctors identify CHS more accurately.
What to know if you’re diagnosed with cannabis hyperemesis syndrome
- You may have symptoms and side effects of CHS for a few weeks after quitting cannabis.
- She has written multiple books focused on living with irritable bowel syndrome.
- Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS) is a condition that affects some people who use cannabis for a long time.
- Concentrations encountered in cannabis smoking or vaporization would be expected to be exceptionally low and unlikely to produce symptoms in adult humans.
- The receptors are located all throughout our central and peripheral nervous systems, and a large number of them are also located within our digestive system, which has led scientists to investigate ways to use them to help with conditions like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and peptic ulcer disease.
While waiting for answers, she noticed an educational pamphlet on cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a little-known illness characterized by an onset of intense vomiting. She wondered if her gastric distress might have been caused by the marijuana she regularly and legally smoked at her home in Toronto. You could go about your day with an uneasy stomach, often worrying that you might vomit.
Acute treatment is necessary to avoid dehydration, renal failure, and death, but long-term treatments need to emphasize that sustained abstinence is required to permanently cease symptoms. Education regarding the potential effects of long-term high doses of cannabinoids should be disseminated to physicians and the public to better detect and manage this debilitating syndrome. Future research, both clinical and pre-clinical, should continue to investigate the underlying mechanism and pre-disposing factors of CHS, to further understand the consequences of high-dose cannabinoid use and dysregulation of the endocannabinoid system.
