Grief Tied to Death

Dying of a Broken Heart Is a Real Phenomenon

George W. Citroner

October 25, 2018

The death of a loved one is a tragic and ultimately unavoidable experience that we all eventually face. Stories of spouses dying within days or even hours of each other are not uncommon. A recent study may explain why.

Researchers from Rice University, Houston, Texas, found that individuals who struggle to overcome grief caused by the loss of a loved one may experience levels of inflammation high enough to cause heart damage.

"I was struck by how often people who had lost a loved one, like a spouse, were at much greater risk of suffering an often fatal heart attack than other people. They seemed to literally be 'dying of a broken heart.' I wanted to understand why this was the case," lead investigator Chris Fagundes, PhD, who is an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University, told Medscape Medical News.

"In a previous paper, we found inflammation was significantly higher in bereaved individuals. In this study, what we looked at is if level of bereavement could predict those most at risk," said Fagundes.

The study was published online October 11 in Psychoneuroendocrinology.