EEG, heart rate and mood change (?high?) after Cannabis

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00421704
• Publication Date: 2004-11-10T03:01:50Z
• Authors: J. Volavka; P. Crown; R. Dornbush; Stanley Feldstein; Max Fink
• Keywords: Hashish; Alpha (finance)

Fourteen experienced marijuana users smoked marijuana, hashish, δ 9-THC, and placebo. EEG, ECG and ratings of subjective feelings of “high” and pleasantness were recorded. EEGs were processed by period analysis. In EEG, marijuana and δ 9-THC increased the amount of alpha activity, and the three Cannabis preparations decreased the amount of beta activity. The average frequency of alpha activity was decreased by 0.15–0.20 c/sec after marijuana, hashish and δ 9-THC. The peak EEG effect occurred during the first 10 min after smoking; most of the changes disappeared after 40 min. Heart rate was increased by all the three drugs, and the effect persisted for the entire observation period (50 min). Feelings of “high” were elicited by each Cannabis preparation. This was not true of the pleasantness of the experience: only marijuana and hashish were perceived as more pleasant than placebo. Intensity of “high” increased with the amount of alpha activity, and decreased with the average alpha frequency. Pleasantness was unrelated to the EEG. The “high” showed a linear increase with heart rate, whereas pleasantness of the experience was an inverted U-function of heart rate.