We’re all aware of the psychological pain of a broken heart – countless books, songs, and movies have been written and made on the topic – but there’s also scientific evidence that a broken heart can be fatal too.
The technical term is takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TC), a weakening of the heart brought on by physical or emotional stress. A new study from researchers at the University of Arizona looked at data on 199,890 patients in the US between 2016 and 2020.
Incidence of TC rose slightly over the study period for both males and females, but overall incidence was generally higher for females. Fatalities and complications caused by the condition were relatively high. This fits in with previous research suggesting this ‘broken heart syndrome’ is becoming more common in the US.
Although the condition was more common in women, deaths were more than twice as likely in men, with 11.2 percent of males dying compared with 5.5 percent of females. The overall death rate was 6.5 percent.
“We were surprised to find that the death rate from takotsubo cardiomyopathy was relatively high without significant changes over the five-year study, and the rate of in-hospital complications also was elevated,” says interventional cardiologist M. Reza Movahed, from the University of Arizona.
The researchers have put forward a hypothesis for the gap between men and women. TC is believed to be brought on by a surge of stress hormones, triggered by either physical or emotional stress – so a physical stress might be surgery or an infection, whereas emotional stress could be a divorce or the death of a loved one.
Physical stress TC is more common in men, which may explain the higher numbers of deaths brought on by the condition. The researchers also think differences in hormone balances between the sexes could play a role.
Complications resulting from TC included congestive heart failure (35.9 percent of patients), atrial fibrillation (20.7 percent), cardiogenic shock (6.6 percent), stroke (5.3 percent) and cardiac arrest (3.4 percent).
TC is often marked down as a heart attack or chest pain, because of the similarity of the symptoms. But the researchers behind the new study are hoping to raise awareness of the condition, so that it can be better diagnosed and treated more effectively.
“Some complications, such as embolic stroke, may be preventable with an early initiation of anti-clotting medications in patients with a substantially weakened heart muscle or with an irregular heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation that increases the risk of stroke,” says Movahed.
TC is something that health professionals have known about for a while, but there are still plenty of unanswered questions about the condition – both in how it might be detected and how the risk of complications could be reduced.
Not every case of TC is caused by relationship breakups, but it’s clear that losing someone we love has multiple consequences for our physical and mental health, and that the heart can sometimes take the brunt of the stress.
“The continued high death rate is alarming, suggesting that more research be done for better treatment and finding new therapeutic approaches to this condition,” says Movahed.
The research has been published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
