Doctor explains scromiting symptoms as hospitals claim they are seeing it more with cannabis users
Warning: This article contains discussion of drugs which some readers may find distressing.
Doctors have explained some of the symptoms of a hugely unpleasant condition which can affect cannabis users.
The condition is informally referred to as 'scromiting' - a portmanteau of 'screaming' and 'vomiting' which gives an unsettling sense of what the condition is like.
It is believed that the condition may be linked to chronic marijuana use, that's regular and long term use, and can be extremely distressing for patients.
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While a colloquial name used for the condition is 'scromiting', the medical name given to the condition is cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS for short.
Dr. Thangam Venkatesan is a professor at the Ohio State University and an expert on CVS, and explained that a backdrop to the increased incidence in CHS cases is another similar condition, with the more subtle but still unsettling name 'cyclical vomiting syndrome', or CVS.
Dr Venkatesan described the symptoms of this, telling Time: “It has episodes of nausea, vomiting, belly pain, headache, and this affects both children and adults."
She added that understanding the triggers of this health condition, which can see people retching and vomiting four or five times an hour for days on end, is crucial to treating it.
Doctors first observed CHS in 2004 in Australia when they noticed patients coming in with symptoms matching CVS who were all regular cannabis users.
They noticed that this condition had a similar presentation to CVS, and usually began to manifest after patients had been using marijuana for some time, and can recede when people stop using cannabis.
The condition is marked by vomiting and abdominal pain, which can be so intense that some patients scream as they vomit, leading to the colloquial term 'scromiting', though Dr Venkatesan called this 'a fairly derogatory term'.
One peculiarity of the condition, Dr Venkatesan said, is the way that patients can sometimes try to relieve the symptoms.
This is by taking hot showers and hot baths, which although there is no formal clinical understanding of why this helps many patients have said that it provides some relief.
“Close to half the patients with cyclic vomiting who have never used cannabis also exhibit the hot shower bathing behavior,” said Dr Venkatesan. “This is very peculiar.”
Dr Venkatesan said that part of the reason why there appears to be an increase in the condition being spotted and diagnosed in hospitals is an increased awareness and education on it, meaning that more doctors are now equipped to spot the symptoms and make a diagnosis.
However, there does also appear to be a correlation between the rise in cases and cannabis becoming more widely available in the US, as well as a more general increase in use.
Not only that, but the cannabis products and strains now in circulation are much stronger.
Whereas dried plants would previously have had a concentration of around 1-3 percent of the active compound THC, now it could be as much as 15 percent or higher, and as much as 95 percent in some products.
“It's a completely different product, even in medical dispensaries,” said Venkatesan.
She added that the picture is further complicated by the fact that many heavy cannabis users do not experience CHS.
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Kit Roberts