A new study out of the University of Illinois Chicago confirms what ER doctors have been noticing for a while: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS, for short, “scromiting” for long) is very real, and getting more common.
It should be noted, though, that we are nowhere near epidemic levels, as it remains quite rare and only affects cannabis power users.
CHS is an unpleasant side effect of a person’s plan to chill out with their favorite cannabis product of choice. After years of heavy cannabis use, a small but growing number of people will suddenly find themselves experiencing waves of nausea, abdominal pain, and vomiting so violently that it’s accompanied by a terrifying scream, hence the nickname “Scromiting” — a screaming vomit.
Episodes can last up to two days. Hot showers seem to be the only reliable form of short-term relief, and a lot of them. The only reliable long-term fix anyone has stumbled upon so far is the most obvious one: stop using all forms of cannabis, immediately.
Publishing their research in JAMA Network Open, researchers reviewed a national database of emergency department visits between 2016 and 2022, using cases that included both cannabis use and cyclical vomiting syndrome as a proxy for CHS, since it only recently became its own official diagnosis. They counted around 100,000 suspected cases in that period.
Rates were steady and low…and then 2020 hit, and suddenly CHS visits spiked across the country. Not sure what could’ve happened in 2020 that would’ve made everyone want to get out of their own heads for a couple of hours or maybe two straight years, but whatever it was, cases started dipping back down in 2022, though not quite back to the old levels.
The good news is that CHS is treatable once it’s recognized. Unfortunately, it’s often not recognized at all, and its symptoms can be easily misconstrued as something else entirely, leading to a battery of unnecessary tests.
Hopefully, that era is now over, as CHS is officially included in the International Classification of Diseases. Let’s just hope medical professionals brush up on all the latest diseases.
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