Landa, Eric, Vigandt, Erika, Andreev, Alexander et al. · Cureus · 2019 · DOI
This case report describes one patient who had a heart attack (myocardial infarction) shortly after smoking marijuana. The patient was a 42-year-old man with no previous heart problems who experienced chest pain at rest about one hour after using marijuana. The authors suggest that marijuana may have triggered the heart attack, though this is considered a rare occurrence.
While not directly about ME/CFS pathophysiology, this case is relevant because fatigue is listed as a neuropsychiatric effect of cannabis, and some ME/CFS patients use cannabis to manage symptoms. Understanding potential serious cardiac risks of cannabis is important for informed decision-making about symptom management strategies in this vulnerable population.
This single case report does not prove that marijuana causes acute coronary syndrome, nor does it establish causation rather than temporal coincidence. The patient's age, sex, genetic predisposition, or unmeasured cardiovascular risk factors may have been the true cause of the myocardial infarction. This case cannot determine the frequency or likelihood of such cardiac events in cannabis users.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Landa, Eric, Vigandt, Erika, Andreev, Alexander, Malyshev, Yury, & Sahni, Sonu (2019). Cannabis-induced Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Coincidence or Not?. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.5696
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-landa-2019-cannabis-induced,
author = {Landa, Eric and Vigandt, Erika and Andreev, Alexander and Malyshev, Yury and Sahni, Sonu},
title = {Cannabis-induced Acute Coronary Syndrome: A Coincidence or Not?},
journal = {Cureus},
year = {2019},
doi = {10.7759/cureus.5696},
note = {PubMed: 31720164},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/landa-2019-cannabis-induced},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-26. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/landa-2019-cannabis-induced
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