Effect of Cannabis consumption on ANS and conduction pathway of heart of Indian paddy field workers

The current study reports the effect of regular Cannabis sativa (bhang) consumption on the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and the conduction pathway of the heart of the Indian paddy field workers. Twenty-four paddy field workers were selected for the study and electrocardiogram (ECG) signal was recorded. The physiological modulation in the ANS was analyzed in a non-invasive manner using heart rate variability (HRV) parameters. The results suggested a sympathetic dominance in the bhang users. ECG signal divulges information about the cardiac physiology and the conduction pathway of the heart. Time-domain and joint time-frequency domain analyses of ECG signal suggested alterations in the cardiac conduction pathway of bhang users. Artificial neural network based classification using the important predictors as categorical inputs resulted in an efficiency of > 80%.