From The New York Times, Sudden Stress Breaks Hearts —
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.