Some medication complications: Cannabis hyperemesis and opioid hyperalgesia

"Medications, like everything else in life, are a combination of the good (in this case, therapeutic effects) & the bad (adverse effects). But, as with all other aspects of life, they come as a package deal; you don't get one without the other.

Cannabinoids and opioids have many well-known side effects. But there are also less well-known but important ones, which those clinicians working in clinical pain services should be aware of. Tonight we will discuss 2 - Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS), which is a specific syndrome of cyclical vomiting and abdominal pain that can be induced in some users of cannabinoids; & Opioid-Induced Hyperalgesia (OIH), which is a paradoxical increase in pain caused by opioid use. The intention is to have time for webinar participants to contribute, by adding their knowledge or experience, and by asking questions - which may, or may not, be answerable!"

Presenter: Dr John Alchin

Biography: Dr John Alchin

After 5 years in rural general medical practice (3 years on the Chatham Islands, 2 years in Tasmania), I trained in Occupational Medicine, and was then employed for 8 years by Air NZ at Christchurch Airport in the 1990s in Occupational & Aviation Medicine. All these clinical workplaces first exposed me to, and then intrigued me about, the prevalence & mystery of chronic musculoskeletal pain.

From 1998 I was a Senior Medical Officer at the Pain Management Centre at Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, where I was Clinical Director for 6 years, and Supervisor of Training in Pain Medicine for the Canterbury District Health Board. I was the Editor of Ngau Mamae in the late 2000s, and President of the NZ Pain Society in the late 2010s. Since clinical retirement from Burwood Hospital in 2022, I have continued as a Clinical Lecturer in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Musculoskeletal Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch Clinical School.