Overview

Nausea is the unpleasant urge to vomit. Vomiting is the forceful ejection of stomach contents through the mouth. This is generally a protective mechanism to remove harmful ingested substances, but can occur from many unrelated infectious and inflammatory conditions in the body. Muscles in the abdominal wall contract vigorously to create the pressure necessary for vomiting (retching). Retching, also called ‘dry heaving’ can also occur without vomiting, or can precede or follow vomiting. Similarly, nausea can occur without vomiting or may precede vomiting.

Vomiting must be differentiated from regurgitation, which is the effortless movement of swallowed food contents or stomach acid from the stomach back into the mouth. Regurgitation is not associated with nausea or retching. When regurgitated material tastes sour and bitter, it may be a manifestation of reflux disease, but when it tastes the same as ingested food, it indicates a problem with food movement from the swallowing tube into the stomach. Rumination is another symptom that may resemble vomiting. Rumination consists of regurgitation of ingested food followed by rechewing and reswallowing, and is a learned behavior that may be considered pleasurable by the patient.

There are many causes of nausea and vomiting, these include but are not limited to: medications, infections, inflammation, foods, pregnancy, bowel obstruction, motility disorders, migraines and other brain disorders, metabolic disturbances, psychiatric disease, and pain.