Sudden Emotional Stress Can Affect Heart, Researchers Say

Sudden Emotional Stress Can Affect Heart, Researchers Say
"Sudden Emotional Stress Can Affect Heart, Researchers Say
By Denise Grady, The New York Times, February 9, 2005

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 the emergency room with chest pains and weakening of the heart, according to an article in The New England Journal of Medicine."

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