Chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS)

Chronic inflammatory response syndrome is a contested diagnostic label applied to a persistent, multisystem set of symptoms that some practitioners attribute to biotoxin exposure, most often mold in water-damaged buildings.

Reported symptoms are wide-ranging and include fatigue, brain fog, joint and muscle pain, headaches, sinus congestion, shortness of breath, temperature dysregulation and mood changes. Proponents describe it as an ongoing innate immune activation in genetically susceptible people, and they use laboratory panels and a visual contrast sensitivity test in their assessment. Major medical organizations have not adopted these criteria, and the syndrome is not recognized in standard diagnostic manuals.

Conventional evaluation of similar symptoms focuses on documented mold-related allergy and respiratory disease and on ruling out other causes such as thyroid disease, sleep disorders and autoimmune conditions. No established clinical evidence supports cannabidiol as a treatment for this syndrome; related discussion exists mainly in the form of individual patient accounts.