Broken heart syndrome, formally called Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, is often caused by stressful events such as a breakup or the death of a loved one.
According to an EveryDay Health broadcast on Thursday (15/5), experts believe that this condition, which causes symptoms similar to a heart attack such as chest pain and shortness of breath, occurs when a burst of stress hormones such as adrenaline makes the heart unable to contract properly.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that while the condition is more common in women, men are twice as likely to die from broken heart syndrome.Researchers in the study evaluated trends, mortality, and complications in adult patients hospitalized with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy from 2016 to 2020.
A total of 199,890 Takotsubo cardiomyopathy patients were identified in the hospital database during that period and 83 percent of them were women.
According to the researchers' analysis, the death rate from broken heart syndrome is quite high, up to 6.5 percent with no improvement over a five-year period.
The death rate from broken heart syndrome in men was 11.2 percent, or more than double that in women, which was only 5.5 percent.Congestive heart failure was the most common complication, occurring in 36 percent of those studied, followed by atrial fibrillation (21 percent), cardiogenic shock (7 percent), stroke (5 percent), and heart attack (3 percent).
Researchers say further studies are needed to understand the causes of the different risks of broken heart syndrome in women and men.
