Can you suffer from – and die of – a broken heart? A growing body of medical research suggests you can – and the likelihood has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Broken heart syndrome differs from a traditional heart attack because patients typically do not have blockages in arteries of the heart, he said. Unless there's an autopsy on the deceased, it's impossible to know whether they died of a heart attack, broken heart syndrome, or another type of trauma or stress-induced heart ailment, Wittstein said.
The rates of broken heart syndrome have increased in recent years, according to a study from Dr. Susan Cheng, a cardiologist and epidemiologist and director of the Institute for Research on Healthy Aging in the department of cardiology., found an increase in rates of broken heart syndrome from 2006 to 2017. More than 135,460 Americans had the syndrome during that time, with women ages 50 to 74 having the highest increase.
Respiratory problems brought on by a COVID-19 infection could likely increase cases of broken heart syndrome, too, Wittstein said. "I think the pandemic has sort of led to this spike in cases from different angles, both the emotional side and the physical side."If a person survives the onset of broken heart syndrome, they can often recover within days or weeks, the AHA says. But the long-term effects of the syndrome remain unknown and are being studied.