A rare condition called "broken heart syndrome" is often linked to an emotionally difficult or stressful event, but findings of a new study suggest that the condition can also be caused by happy events and those that elicit positive emotions.
Also known as the Takotsubo syndrome, the condition is marked by chest pains that are believed to be set off when hormones, such as adrenalin, surge causing the heart to beat irregularly.
The condition is often confused with heart attack because of similar symptoms that often appear minutes or hours after the patient has been through a stressful situation.
For the new study published in the European Heart Journal on March 3, researchers involved 485 patients diagnosed with the broken heart syndrome.
They found that not all of the participants had a sad experience prior to the onset of the symptoms. About 4 percent actually developed the condition after they experienced a happy event such as a wedding, birthday party, or a birth of a new member of the family.
The findings of the study provide evidence that Takotsubo syndrome is not just caused by traumatic events. The results widened the spectrum of emotions that are known to lead to the condition.
Study author Jelena Ghadri, from the University Hospital Zurich in Switzerland, said that the Takotsubo syndrome patient is no longer the brokenhearted patient since the disease was found to be also preceded by positive emotions.
The researchers will now look at the brain activity patterns in individuals with the "happy heart syndrome" so they can compare these patterns to those who have the broken heart syndrome. The investigation will allow researchers to learn more about the interaction of the brain and the heart, which could pave way for a better understanding of the mechanism behind the Takotsubo syndrome.
"We believe that TTS is a classic example of an intertwined feedback mechanism, involving the psychological and/or physical stimuli, the brain and the cardiovascular system," said Christian Templin, from the University Hospital Zurich. "Perhaps both happy and sad life events, while inherently distinct, share final common pathways in the central nervous system output, which ultimately lead to TCS."
