Scared to Death: Fright really can have fatal consequences
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Can someone literally be scared to death or die of a broken heart?
"You can, and this has been described in biblical literature, and it's something that's been passed on -- 'died of a broken heart' -- these kinds of things," said Hunter Champion, a heart failure cardiologist and director of the pulmonary vascular disease program at UPMC.
Dr. Champion is a longtime researcher of the cardiac condition properly known as stress cardiomyopathy but commonly called broken heart syndrome because of the emotional events that apparently trigger it.
Srinivas Murali, director of the division of cardiovascular medicine, West Penn Allegheny Health System, knows of similar cases. He said, "You can also suddenly be frightened to death.
"This is a sudden weakening of the heart muscle, which is triggered by a sudden, unexpected mental stress, so for example if there is a death of a loved one, a spouse or a child."
He said WPAHS typically sees two to three cases a year.
Dr. Champion, who has seen 200 to 250 cases over his career, believes the syndrome "is much more common than we think."
Physical events such as a head injury or stroke apparently also can spark it, researchers say.
The condition strikes women much more often than men, and most of those women are beyond menopause.
Besides the sudden death of a loved one, Dr. Champion has seen the condition follow such events as a family argument, armed robbery, fear of giving a public speech, fear during a medical procedure and, his favorite case: "A woman went to a surprise birthday and truly was surprised."
Symptoms mimic those of a heart attack -- chest pain, shortness of breath, arm or facial numbness -- but there are a couple of big differences between the two conditions besides the emotional stress that precedes stress cardiomyopathy: Heart muscle dies during a heart attack, but in broken heart syndrome there usually is complete recovery if proper treatment is undertaken immediately. Also in stress cardiomyopathy, the patient has much higher levels of the stress hormones, including adrenaline, or epinephrine, and norepinephrine, in the bloodstream.
First Published October 31, 2011 12:00 am
