Symptoms of mushroom poisoning

There are thousands of species of mushrooms. Most of these are inedible or poisonous. In comparison with other types of poisoning (medication, household products), mushroom poisoning is rare and constitutes only about 2 % of all the enquiries Tox Info Suisse receives. Most instances of mushroom poisoning occur as a result of mistaking mushrooms for edible species when foraging. These cases occur more seasonally (September, October). In contrast, poisoning with hallucinogenic mushrooms (“magic mushrooms”) and symptoms after consuming purchased edible mushrooms occur throughout the year.

The biggest challenge with mushroom poisoning is excluding Amanita mushroom poisoning. Without treatment, the consequences are often severe or even fatal. Other types of mushroom poisoning generally only cause gastrointestinal symptoms.

Symptoms after eating mushrooms?

The top priority is to exclude death cap poisoning (mushroom containing amatoxin)!

Eating mushrooms containing amatoxin can cause life-threatening liver failure.  

The key criteria to assess whether death cap mushroom poisoning is possible is whether the foraged mushrooms have been checked by a mushroom inspection body. Every year, several kilogrammes of death caps are found in the foraged collection. Tox Info Suisse records up to eight cases of poisoning with death cap mushrooms annually.

Mushroom poisoning can be categorised into three main groups based on the symptoms that occur: 

1. Poisoning with gastrointestinal symptoms
2. Poisoning with neuropsychiatric symptoms
3. Poisoning with other symptoms

The first group occurs most frequently, while the third group is very rare. There are now about 16 mushroom poisoning syndromes with typical combinations of symptoms that can be attributed to the ingested mushrooms. 

Updated November 2024