The 23-year-old woman arrived at the hospital and couldn’t stop throwing up – again.
For almost two years, the young woman had been in the emergency room almost every month with the same symptoms: nausea, abdominal pain and uncontrolled vomiting.
Doctors initially thought the patient’s discomfort was caused by gastroparesis, a condition in which the stomach does not empty properly. The indigestion commonly affects people with diabetesthat this patient had.
However, previous studies and scans of her digestive system had returned to normal, and the medications she was prescribed to treat gastroparesis weren’t helping.
It wasn’t until the woman mentioned that she was a frequent cannabis user that her doctors began to consider a new diagnosis recent report in which American Journal of Case Reports.
A key clue was hot baths, which relieved her symptoms
During one of her visits to the emergency room, the patient’s urine tested positive for cannabis, and she told doctors she smoked cannabis at least five times a week.
She said she smoked two days before her last hospital visit. But smoking didn’t relieve her symptoms; In fact, taking hot baths at home only made her feel better.
Many people use cannabis to reduce nausea, whether it’s from a hangover or symptoms of a chronic illness.
At low doses, the drug has proven effective effective in treating nauseaespecially for patients undergo chemotherapy.
But in high doses, that’s not always the case. In this situation, the doctors realized that the drug in fact caused Gastrointestinal complaints of the patient.
Doctors diagnosed the woman with Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS)a condition marked by seizures of severe nausea and vomiting in people who use high doses of cannabis frequently and over a long period of time.
One of the main features of CHS is that patients report that hot baths or showers can help relieve symptoms. Those affected are known Spend hours in hot water to ease her nausea.
The patient’s symptoms stopped when she stopped using cannabis
While hot showers and baths can help, the only permanent cure for CHS is quitting cannabis.
After being diagnosed with CHS, the patient sought counseling to help her stop using cannabis. She was successful for two months, during which she remained symptom-free, but the Nausea and vomiting came back when she started using cannabis again.
The case report authors said that this patient’s case underscores the importance of considering a complete medication history for all patients, particularly those suffering from severe nausea and vomiting that only subsides with a hot shower or bath .
They say that recreational cannabis use has been around for as long as possible legalized in 21 states and Washington, DC, Over the past 10 years, physicians may have treated more patients with CHS in emergency departments as cannabis use has become more widespread.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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