Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 28, 2015; 21(20): 6381-6383
Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i20.6381
Self-medication of achalasia with cannabis, complicated by a cannabis use disorder
Amandine Luquiens, Nelson Lourenco, Amine Benyamina, Henri-Jean Aubin
Amandine Luquiens, Amine Benyamina, Henri-Jean Aubin, Hôpital Paul Brousse-Addictologie, 94804 Villejuif cedex, France
Nelson Lourenco, Service d'hépatogastroentérologie, Hôpital Saint Louis, Université Denis Diderot Paris VII, 75010 Paris, France
Author contributions: Luquiens A was involved in acquisition of data; analysis and interpretation of data; drafting of the manuscript and final approval of the version of the article to be published; Lourenco N, Benyamina A and Aubin HJ were involved in analysis and interpretation of data, making critical revisions related to important intellectual content of the manuscript and provided critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content and gave final approval of the version of the article to be published.
Ethics approval: Our research” Self-medication of achalasia with cannabis, complicated by a cannabis use disorder Cannabis in achalasia and manometry” was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. We kindly ask for an exemption from providing the Institutional review board (institutional review board) statement, which cannot be available. The case report «Self-medication of achalasia with cannabis, complicated by a cannabis use disorder - Cannabis in achalasia and manometry» was written retrospectively, with the written patient’s consent. No review board is required or available in our Institution for this kind of case report, as it has no impact on the care providing process.
Informed consent: The patient gave written informed consent for publication before the study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest: No relevant conflict of interest for Lourenco N, Aubin HJ, Benyamina A; Luquiens A requested for patent application of cannabis use in achalasia.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Amandine Luquiens, MD, Hôpital Paul Brousse, Addictologie-Addictologie, 12 avenue Paul Vaillant-Couturier, 94804 Villejuif cedex, France. amandineluquiens@yahoo.fr
Telephone: +33-14-5594018 Fax: +33-14-5593568
Received: September 23, 2014
Peer-review started: September 25, 2014
First decision: October 29, 2014
Revised: November 26, 2014
Accepted: January 8, 2015
Article in press: January 8, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Processing time: 248 Days and 14.8 Hours
Abstract

Achalasia is a rare esophagus motility disorder. Medical, endoscopic and surgical treatments are available, but all endorse high relapse rates. No data has been published to date reporting a therapeutic effect of cannabis use neither in achalasia nor on its influence on manometric measurements. We report the case of a patient diagnosed with achalasia. He could benefit from a large panel of therapeutic interventions, but none of them was effective over the time. He first used cannabis at age 20 and identified benefits regarding achalasia symptoms. He maintained regular moderate cannabis use for 9 years, with minimal digestive inconvenience. A manometry performed without cannabis premedication was realized at age 26 and still found a cardiospasm. Cannabis use could explain the gap between functional symptoms assessment and manometry measurement. Further investigations are warranted to explore a therapeutic effect of cannabis in achalasia and possible influence on outcome measurements.

Keywords: Achalasia; Cannabis; Treatment; Manometry; Addiction

Core tip: Achalasia is a rare esophagus motility disorder. Medical, endoscopic and surgical treatments are available, but all endorse high relapse rates. We report the case of a patient diagnosed with achalasia who identified benefits from cannabis use on achalasia symptoms. Cannabis non-use before manometry could explain the gap between functional symptoms assessment and manometry measurement. Further investigations are warranted to explore a therapeutic effect of cannabis in achalasia and possible influence on outcome measurements. Particular attention should be given to cannabis addiction risk to vulnerable patients.