Introduction: Reddit hosts a large active community of members dedicated to the discussion of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. We sought to describe common themes discussed and the most frequently mentioned triggers and therapies for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome exacerbations in the Reddit online community.
Methods: Data collected from six subreddits were filtered using natural language processing to curate posts referencing cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Based on a manual review of posts, common themes were identified. A machine learning model was trained using the manually categorized data to automatically classify the themes for the rest of the posts so that their distributions could be quantified.
Results: From August 2018 to November 2022, 2683 unique posts were collected. Thematic analysis resulted in five overall themes: cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome-related science; symptom timing; cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome treatment and prevention; cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome diagnosis and education; and health impacts. Additionally, 447 trigger and 664 therapy-related posts were identified. The most commonly mentioned triggers for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome episodes included: food and drink (n = 62), cannabinoids (n = 45), mental health (e.g., stress, anxiety) (n = 27), and alcohol (n = 22). Most commonly mentioned cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome therapies included: hot water/bathing (n = 62), hydration (n = 60), antiemetics (n = 42), food and drink (n = 38), gastrointestinal medications (n = 38), behavioral therapies (e.g., meditation, yoga) (n = 35), and capsaicin (n = 29).
Discussion: Reddit posts for cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome provide a valuable source of community discussion and individual reports of people experiencing cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome. Mental health and alcohol were frequently reported triggers within the posts but are not often identified in the literature. While many of the therapies mentioned are well documented, behavioral responses such as meditation and yoga have not been explored by the scientific literature.
Conclusions: Knowledge shared via online social media platforms contains detailed information on self-reported cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome disease and management experiences, which could serve as valuable data for the development of treatment strategies. Further longitudinal studies in patients with cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome are needed to corroborate these findings.
Keywords: CHS; Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome; Reddit; cannabis; cyclic vomiting.