A CASE OF CHRONIC INEXPLICABLE VOMITING

Mehak Semy*, Dr. Peterkin Lee-Kwen and Mr. Sarfaraz Semy

ABSTRACT

Psychogenic vomiting as defined by Leibovich is vomiting without any obvious organic pathology or functional vomiting, resulting from psychological mechanisms.[1] Nausea is the subjective feeling of an urge to expel the gastric contents primarily and vomiting is the oral expulsion of the gastrointestinal contents due to gut and thoracoabdominal wall contraction. The etiopathogenesis is usually varied, ranging from infections, obstruction in the gastrointestinal tract, inflammatory diseases, to drugs and toxins. There are certain cases of vomiting categorized as ‘psychogenic’ which remain unexplained otherwise. The term first described in the early 1960s as ‘functional vomiting’ was linked to underlying mental illnesses.[2] Earlier, psychogenic vomiting was not studied outside the setting of anorexia nervosa and hyperemesis gravidarum.[3] In these patients vomiting seemed like a voluntary act aimed to cope up with patient’s central problem of being their ‘ideal weight’. With constant on-going research happening all around some studies show that individuals can vomit as reaction to many different situations, stresses and adversities they have faced in their lives. In this case report, a 53-year-old male presents to the outpatient neurology clinic with primary complaints of ‘Can’t eat. Throw up often’. After ruling out all the plausible pathological causes of vomiting it was labeled as ‘psychogenic vomiting’.

Keywords: gastrointestinal tract, inflammatory diseases, to drugs and toxins.