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Cleveland Clinic cardiologists have seen a notable increase in cases of broken-heart syndrome during the coronavirus pandemic, indicating the psychological and emotional stress of the crisis is adversely affecting physical health. Broken-heart syndrome, the colloquial name for stress cardiomyopathy, causes dysfunction or failure in the heart muscle. Patients experience symptoms similar to a heart attack, but usually do not have acutely blocked coronary arteries. Doctors commonly attribute it to psychological, social or emotional stress. None of the patients with stress cardiomyopathy that the Clinic observed during the pandemic tested positive for COVID-19. This led researchers to conclude that stress is...

Sudden emotional stress - from grief, fear, anger or shock - can cause heart failure, in a little known and poorly understood syndrome that seems to affect primarily women, researchers are reporting today. The victims are generally healthy, with no history of heart disease. A death in the family, an armed robbery, a car accident, a biopsy procedure and a surprise party were among the events that sent 18 women and one man to coronary care units in Baltimore with chest pains and weakening of the heart, according to an article in The New England Journal of Medicine. Most were...