Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome rates increase with marijuana legalization

A report by CBS News reports on a 2015 paper:

Howard S. Kim, MD, John D. Anderson, MD, Omeed Saghafi, MD, Kennon J. Heard, MD, PhD, and Andrew A. Monte, MD Cyclic Vomiting Presentations Following Marijuana Liberalization in Colorado. Acad Emerg Med. 2015 Jun; 22(6): 694–699.
Published online 2015 Apr 22.
[pubmed

From the Abstract:

The authors reviewed 2,574 visits and identified 36 patients diagnosed with cyclic vomiting over 128 visits. The prevalence of cyclic vomiting visits increased from 41 per 113,262 ED visits to 87 per 125,095 ED visits after marijuana liberalization, corresponding to a prevalence ratio of 1.92 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.33 to 2.79). Patients with cyclic vomiting in the postliberalization period were more likely to have marijuana use documented than patients in the preliberalization period (odds ratio = 3.59, 95% CI = 1.44 to 9.00).

For background on the slow, Case Report driven appreciation that a chronic cyclical vomiting syndrome can be caused by cannabis use, see blog posts here, here, here.

The major takeaway message is that when physicians or patients are simply aware that there is this syndrome, diagnosis can be more rapid and a lot less expensive. Patients can, if they are able to stop smoking pot, find relief more quickly.

As far as the present report showing increasing rates in CO, well, this is interesting. Consistent with a specific causal relationship of cannabis use to this hyperemesis syndrome. But hard to disentangle growing awareness of the syndrome from growing incidence of it. We’ll just have to follow these relationships as more states legalize medical and recreational marijuana.

Additional coverage from Dirk Hansen.