{"id":827571,"date":"2026-08-27T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827571\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T12:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T12:46:10","slug":"teen-gets-life-threatening-brain-condition-due-to-weed-scromitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/827571\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen gets life-threatening brain condition due to weed ‘scromitting’"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a popular belief that weed can\u2019t kill you. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s almost impossible to overdose on weed by itself, marijuana use can indirectly cause life-threatening complications. A 15-year-old learned this the hard way, a new case study<\/a> reveals.<\/p>\n

His is one of only two recorded cases in teens in which \u201cscromitting,\u201d slang for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), led to a critical and life-threatening thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency that affected the brain.<\/p>\n

\"YoungThe 15-year-old lost 25 to 30 pounds by his second visit to the ER. Jan H. Andersen \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Before doctors identified the cause, he\u2019d lost 25 to 30 pounds from vomiting, a hallmark of CHS. He also developed serious issues with cognition and movement.<\/p>\n

With increased access to the marijuana, more teens are using it in various forms, which can lead to problems in school<\/a> and with friends and psychiatric conditions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the 15-year-old\u2019s case, he developed a brain condition that is notoriously hard to identify and diagnose. Here\u2019s how doctors figured it out and saved his life.<\/p>\n

What happened to the teen<\/p>\n

The teen originally went to the emergency room after spending several days feeling nauseous, with a headache and vomiting. He said he\u2019d been using cannabis for the past three months, but otherwise didn\u2019t say he had used any other drugs and didn\u2019t have any significant past medical history.<\/p>\n

He was given anti-nausea drugs, IV fluids, and told to stop using weed \u2014 then was sent on his way.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, he went to his primary care doctor with the same symptoms. He had a series of tests and imaging done, including a CT scan, which didn\u2019t reveal anything remarkable.<\/p>\n

\"AMore teens are using marijuana in different forms and higher potency. ststoev \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Another week went by, and his mom took him back to the ER, a month after his initial visit. She said he\u2019d lost 25-30 pounds by this point. A urine test showed he was still using marijuana.<\/p>\n

During the assessment, doctors noted he was confused, had slowed speech, and would be unresponsive for a few moments when asked a question.<\/p>\n

Doctors scrambled, looking at his digestive system and kidneys, and they gave him something to raise his dangerously low sodium levels. It helped his blood sodium levels return to normal, but his cognition remained impaired.<\/p>\n

By the fourth day in the hospital, the teen was still bed-bound. His eyes started moving rapidly and uncontrollably and he was sensitive to light and had trouble walking to the bathroom. Doctors ordered an MRI, which didn\u2019t reveal a cause.<\/p>\n

How his condition was identified<\/p>\n

A condition known as Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) is associated with three hallmarks<\/a>: rapid eye movement (nystagmus), ataxia (loss of coordination) and mental changes.<\/p>\n

However, this triad of symptoms only appears in a minority of patients with the disorder \u2014 making it notoriously hard to diagnose. Most cases are only identified after death, during an autopsy.<\/p>\n

WE is caused by dangerously low levels of thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain. In this teen\u2019s case, the deficiency was caused by the prolonged, excessive vomiting associated with CHS. The leading cause for WE is chronic alcohol use, but malnutrition from things like an eating disorder or cancer can also lead to this deficiency. <\/p>\n

It often progresses<\/a> to Korsakoff syndrome, which causes permanent losses to memory and learning. This develops in up to 85% of survivors.<\/p>\n

Wernicke-Korskoff syndrome kills 20% of patients.<\/p>\n

In the only other teen case of CHS leading to WE, it was caught via MRI. In the 15-year-old\u2019s case, the MRI missed it.<\/p>\n

Doctors didn\u2019t know it was WE for sure. A test to confirm thiamine deficiency would take days to return. But they suspected it, based on the teen\u2019s symptoms, and said that giving him supplemental thiamine was \u201clow risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teen got thiamine through an IV every eight hours for two days, plus a thiamine pill for four days. Within a day, his eye movements and cognition improved.<\/p>\n

With his improvement, he was sent home. CHS can typically be resolved by stopping cannabis use, which the teen agreed to do.<\/p>\n

At his most recent checkup, he had regained his weight and returned to normal brain function.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a popular belief that weed can\u2019t kill you. While it\u2019s almost impossible to overdose on weed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":827572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253,6149,1494,3284,18224],"class_list":["post-827571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-marijuana","tag-medical-disorders","tag-study-says","tag-teens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}