Beloved,
I wish above all things that thou mayest...be in health...
3 John 1:2
"Hospitals are seeing a striking rise in people with sudden bouts of intense vomiting linked to long-term cannabis use, a condition now formally classified as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome..webp)
Over the past ten years, emergency departments have treated a growing number of people seeking help for abdominal pain accompanied by severe or persistent vomiting. A shared characteristic among many of these patients is long-term cannabis use.
Clinicians only recently gained a standardized way to document this issue. Last month, a diagnostic code for “cannabis hyperemesis syndrome” became available, describing a gastrointestinal condition that begins within 24 hours of the most recent use and can continue for several days. People who develop the syndrome often face three or four bouts of symptoms each year.
On October 1, the World Health Organization added the new code, R11.16, to its International Classification of Diseases manual (ICD-10, currently). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also incorporated the update for U.S. health care providers.
Even with a proper diagnosis, patients are sometimes reluctant to accept that cannabis is causing their symptoms, said Dr. Chris Buresh, an emergency medicine specialist with UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s.
“Some people say they’ve used cannabis without a problem for decades. Or they smoke pot because they think it treats their nausea,” he said. “It seems like there’s a threshold when people can become vulnerable to this condition, and that threshold is different for everyone. Even using in small amounts can make these people start throwing up.”
Standard anti-nausea medications often do not work well, he said,
leading physicians to try second- or third-line options such as Haldol, which is usually prescribed for psychotic episodes.
Several factors can slow a patient’s recovery. Because the syndrome appears intermittently, some cannabis users may believe a recent episode was unrelated and continue using cannabis without problems until they suddenly become very sick again.
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Clinicians only recently gained a standardized way to document this issue. Last month, a diagnostic code for “cannabis hyperemesis syndrome” became available, describing a gastrointestinal condition that begins within 24 hours of the most recent use and can continue for several days. People who develop the syndrome often face three or four bouts of symptoms each year.
On October 1, the World Health Organization added the new code, R11.16, to its International Classification of Diseases manual (ICD-10, currently). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also incorporated the update for U.S. health care providers.
Even with a proper diagnosis, patients are sometimes reluctant to accept that cannabis is causing their symptoms, said Dr. Chris Buresh, an emergency medicine specialist with UW Medicine and Seattle Children’s.
“Some people say they’ve used cannabis without a problem for decades. Or they smoke pot because they think it treats their nausea,” he said. “It seems like there’s a threshold when people can become vulnerable to this condition, and that threshold is different for everyone. Even using in small amounts can make these people start throwing up.”
Standard anti-nausea medications often do not work well, he said,
Several factors can slow a patient’s recovery. Because the syndrome appears intermittently, some cannabis users may believe a recent episode was unrelated and continue using cannabis without problems until they suddenly become very sick again.
For those who accept the diagnosis and try to stop using cannabis to improve their symptoms, addiction can make that process challenging, Carlini said."
SciTechDaily
