A doctor has shared a sobering warning about a condition that’s been dubbed “scromiting” online.
The slang term blends “screaming” and “vomiting,” and it captures the extreme reality for some sufferers: ongoing nausea, repeated vomiting, and intense abdominal pain.
Clinically, it’s known as cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a condition most often connected to frequent, heavy cannabis use.
Doctors in the US say they’re seeing more cases in emergency departments, including among younger patients who arrive in significant gastrointestinal distress.
A common thread linking many of these cases is substantial cannabis consumption.
Dr Sam Wang, a pediatric toxicologist in Colorado, described the severity of what patients can experience, telling CNN: “They’re writhing, holding their stomach, and can’t stop vomiting.”
One patient also posted a deeply personal account of living through CHS symptoms.
“I was crying and screaming and I was like ‘I can’t take this anymore!’ I hate my life,” she in a video on TikTok. “I’m just begging God, like please make it stop!”
The mother went further, saying the pain felt “worse than childbirth.”
Dr Wang also stressed that the risks can escalate if vomiting continues unchecked: “Regardless of whether it’s cannabis hyperemesis syndrome or another virus that makes you vomit a lot,” Wang said, “if you let it go too long, you can have electrolyte disturbances, go into shock and have organ failure. CHS is no different.”
In other words, without proper care, it can become dangerous and potentially life-threatening.
CHS has been discussed in medical research for years; researchers in Australia associated long-term marijuana use with severe nausea and vomiting as far back as 2004.
In that work, patients often improved once they stopped using cannabis.
However, symptoms frequently returned if they resumed cannabis use later on.
Researchers also noted an unusual pattern: more than half of the 19 patients they followed used hot showers or baths to try to ease symptoms—something that has since become widely associated with attempts to relieve CHS discomfort.
Dr Wang added that some younger people end up coming back to the ER repeatedly because the symptoms are so hard to control.
“For some of our kids, this is their fifth ER visit in the past two months, with symptoms that they can’t control,” Dr Wang said.
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can call American Addiction Centers on (313) 209-9137 24/7, or contact them through their website.