CLEVELAND — Are you a daily marijuana user? Well, area doctors are finding an increase in Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome cases coming into emergency departments.
Despite the condition being medically recognized for the last 20 years, it’s still somewhat of a mystery to the medical community.
Cannabinoid Hyperemesis is a symptom of using marijuana daily for a year or more. Symptoms include sharp abdominal pain and non-stop vomiting that can last days, weeks, or even months. Northeast Ohio emergency department doctors said they are seeing cases in their emergency rooms every day.
Researchers believe that ingesting marijuana daily has profound impacts on skin receptors, including a part of the brain that manages body temperature and control of the digestive system.
Symptoms come on gradually with feelings of nausea, sharp, severe abdominal pain, and then repeated vomiting.
Dr. David Streem with the Alcohol And Drug Recovery Center at Cleveland Clinic’s Lutheran Hospital said the condition is rather difficult to treat and can take a while for symptoms to alleviate. It impacts people mostly between the ages of 15 and 35.
“There is a cyclic vomiting episode where they start vomiting, they cannot stop, it lasts hours to days, maybe even weeks,” said Streem. “Then it stops and it might go away for a day or a week or a little longer. Then without warning, it starts up again. Most of the most powerful anti-nausea medicines known to modern medicine, things that we use for chemotherapy every day to stop chemotherapy associated vomiting, postoperative vomiting. Generally, those don't work in Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome.”
Doctors recommend to stop ingesting marijuana immediately if diagnosed. Other solutions doctors recommend to alleviate cyclic vomiting, specifically for this condition, are to take hot showers and use hot pepper cream on the stomach area. Adding heat to the body is part of the theory that the condition impacts the part of the brain that controls body temperature.
Streem said he has seen an increase in people seeking sobriety and recovery treatment, specifically for excessive marijuana use in Northeast Ohio. He said it’s easier for people to get high and hide because of vapes and gummies.
