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Interactions of Marijuana and Induced Stress: Forearm Blood Flow, Heart Rate, and Skin Conductance
Author(s) -
Naliboff Bruce D.,
Rickles William H.,
Cohen Michael J.,
Naimark Robert S.
Publication year - 1976
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1976.tb00871.x
Subject(s) - psychology , heart rate , skin conductance , mental arithmetic , placebo , anesthesia , developmental psychology , cardiology , blood pressure , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , biomedical engineering
To examine the interaction of marijuana and an induced state of stress, on both subjective and physiological measures, two groups of 15 subjects each were given a mental arithmetic task to perform. The sequence of events was 10 min each of pre‐stress, stress, post‐stress, intoxication (about 20 min), pre‐stress, stress, post‐stress. In the intoxication phase, one group smoked marijuana containing 14 mg Δ 9 ‐THC while the other group smoked a placebo. The dependent variables were forearm blood flow (FBF), heart rate (HR). and skin conductance (SC), and a subjective measure of stress–the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL). The results revealed all physiological variables to be reactive to the stress task. In addition, marijuana intoxication produced reliable increases in both pre‐stress HR and FBF, and yet the physiological response to the post‐intoxication stress period showed no significant decrement when compared In the placebo group. Discussion of these results centered around marijuana's effects on tonic and phasic reactivity.