Parasympathetic decreases immediately following self-reported cannabis smoking among adults living with cannabis use disorder

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to determine the difference between heart rate variability levels before and after self-reported non-medical cannabis use within a sample of African American young adults living with cannabis use disorder. The sample included 31 self-identifying African American undergraduate students (Women = 83.87 %), with a mean age of approximately 19.71 (SD = 1.49) years. After giving consent, the participants were administered a semi-structured interview that included the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI) to determine cannabis use disorder (CUD) status. If a participant met the criteria for CUD, they were instructed to wear a Garmin smartwatch for three consecutive days. The Garmin smartwatch collected interbeat intervals via photoplethysmographic measurement. Participants were also instructed to complete a survey each time they smoked cannabis, a survey that asked for the start and stop times for each cannabis smoking session. Employing mixed ANOVA and Multilevel models, results suggest a significant difference in HRV levels before and after self-reported cannabis smoking. Specifically, both time and frequency domain HRV metrics are significantly lower than levels prior to smoking cannabis. Further, we see a significant increase in average heart rate from before to after cannabis smoking. The current findings identify cannabis' acute autonomic cardiac influence among individuals living with CUD. Future research should elucidate the impact of repeated cannabis exposure and their long term autonomic implications, including more cannabis ingestion modalities.