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Cannabis and hyperemesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Ella Harris*
Affiliation:
4th year GP registrar on the TCD/HSE Specialist Training Programme in General Practice, Dublin, Ireland
Michael McDonagh
Affiliation:
St Patrick's University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
Noel Kennedy
Affiliation:
St Edmundsbury Hospital, Lucan, Co Dublin, Ireland
*
*Correspondence E-mail: ellyharris@gmail.com

Abstract

The adverse effects of marijuana are well documented, as well as its positive therapeutic uses. Cannabis has traditionally been associated with an antiemetic action following acute ingestion and synthetic cannabinoids have an established use as antiemetics for chemotherapy induced nausea. However, there has been limited recognition of chronic cannabis use as a cause of cyclic vomiting syndrome. Cannabinoid hyperemesis was first identified by Allen er al in 2004. Compulsive bathing was also described as part of the clinical picture. This same syndrome has been confirmed a number of times in the medical literature in the interim. The condition has, to our knowledge, never been reported, in a psychiatric patient.

Type
Case Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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