If you have fallen madly in love with someone, you might have said “I can’t physically survive without them” and you were probably telling the truth. About 10 years ago, a few researchers at Johns Hopkins University reported a rare but lethal heart condition caused by acute emotional distress. While the public likes to call this the “broken heart syndrome”, it is technically known as “stress cardiomyopathy”. There is some truth to the metaphorical phrases comparing love to pain. In the past, researchers have shown, via neuroimaging, that the brain regions involved in processing physical pain overlap with those tied to social agony (Jaffe, E. 2013). Love may actually hurt, like hurt hurt, after all.
Who would have thought to take acetaminophen for a broken heart, not me. But, a group of psychological researchers at the University of Kentucky tested whether acetaminophen could relieve the pain of emotional distress as effectively as it relieves bodily aches (Jaffe, E. 2013). They had participants who received acetaminophen and the placebo twice a day for three weeks. The participants provided self-reports on a “hurt feelings” scale designed to measure social exclusion. The results showed that those who took acetaminophen showed significantly lower levels of hurt feelings than those who took the placebo. While I wouldn’t recommend Tylenol after a breakup, I would challenge you to think about who we associate pain with love.
Jaffe, E. (2013, January 30). Why Love Literally Hurts. Retrieved November 21, 2020, from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-love-literally-hurts
Hi Tumim, this was a great read. It really goes to show that our emotions do have an impact on our health that goes beyond the sphere of mental health. I think we can take it even further and associate stress cardiomyopathy with other aspects we go through in life such as grief. I found this article which explains that even after months post stress cardiomyopathy, 88% of patients in the study showed consistent symptoms associated with heart failure (Scally et al., 2018). They also had a decrease in exercise performance when compared to the control group. Its scary to think that going through something like stress cardiomyopathy could have such long term effects.
ReplyDeleteScally, C., Rudd, A., Mezincescu, A., Wilson, H., Srivanasan, J., Horgan, G., Broadhurst, P., Newby, D. E., Henning, A., & Dawson, D. K. (2018). Persistent Long-Term Structural, Functional, and Metabolic Changes After Stress-Induced (Takotsubo) Cardiomyopathy. Circulation, 137(10), 1039–1048. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.031841
Hey Tumim! Awesome post! I could not help but think of that one Grey's Anatomy episode with that old lady suffering from Cardiomyopathy due to her unrequited love interest dying across the street. TRAGIC, I know!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I found this study that showed how not only the heart is affected through love and heartbreak, but the brain as well! With feelings of love and rejection, comes surges of dopamine that closely mirror the signs and symptoms of addiction (to substances like cocaine!),thus another treatment that could be suggested would be antiaddiction drugs. Since Tylenol aided in releiving the pain, it would be interesting to see if these methods would work as well!
References:
Fisher, H. E., Brown, L. L., Aron, A., Strong, G., & Mashek, D. (2010). Reward, Addiction, and Emotion Regulation Systems Associated With Rejection in Love. Journal of Neurophysiology, 104(1), 51-60. doi:10.1152/jn.00784.2009