You can actually die of a broken heart after bereavement, study shows

People who experience overwhelming grief are more likely to die in the 10 years after their bereavement than those who don't, new study found. (milorad kravic/E+/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

You can actually die of a broken heart after the death of a loved one, especially if the grief is overwhelming, new research shows.

Bereaved relatives who experienced “high levels” of grief symptoms were more likely to die in the 10 years following their bereavement than those who experienced “low levels” of grief, a study published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Public Health found.

In the study, coauthor Mette Kjærgaard Nielsen, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark, and her colleagues investigated the long-term health outcomes of bereaved relatives in Denmark over the course of 10 years, dividing the 1,735 participants into groups who experienced “low levels” and “high levels” of grief symptoms.

During the study period, 26.5% of the relatives who showed high levels of grief died, compared with 7.3% of those who were less powerfully affected.

These “high levels” of grief are defined as someone experiencing more than half of nine grief symptoms researchers have identified. These include feeling emotionally numb or that life is meaningless; experiencing difficulty accepting the loss; and experiencing confusion over their own identity.

Participants were asked to fill in questionnaires when they first enrolled in the study, as well as six months and three years after their bereavement, allowing researchers to collect their symptoms.

At the same time, researchers observed how often the study participants interacted with the health care system, finding that relatives with high grief symptoms also used more antidepressant medication, mental health services and primary care services.

“Those with a high grief trajectory seem to be a vulnerable group of relatives already before the death, with need for special attention,” Nielsen told CNN via email.

“(They) may need additional support. They may experience distress and have difficulties coping with the situation,” she said, pointing to previous studies that have highlighted low socioeconomic status, poor self-reported health, and higher symptoms of depression and anxiety as all contributing to overwhelming grief.

Even accounting for these risk factors, the researchers have “done a good job” isolating the specific effect of grief, Sian Harding, a cardiologist and professor emeritus of cardiac pharmacology at Imperial College London who wasn’t involved in the research, told CNN.

One of the “key things” about the paper is its longitudinal perspective, she said, since “we know very well that there’s an acute effect of any kind of bereavement on heart health.”

“It was not a particular surprise to me that this particular form of stress, while prolonged, has a damaging effect on the body. It can come out particularly as heart disease, but other things as well,” Harding added.

While this study didn’t investigate the bereaved relatives’ causes of death, it aligns with wider research showing the effect a traumatic loss can have on a person’s physical health.

One cardiac condition known as broken heart syndrome — also called stress-induced cardiomyopathy or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy — is a well-established acute phenomenon, triggered by intensely stressful situations, like losing a loved one.

Prolonged stress caused by bereavement can also cause raised blood pressure, raised cortisol, an increased risk of diabetes, and poor mental health, Harding said. She also noted previous research into broken heart syndrome that found that some people die on the anniversary of their bereavement.

Findings from the latest study suggest that health-care workers “may be able to discover distressed relatives early in the patient’s illness trajectory and offer follow up,” Nielsen said.

By Issy Ronald, CNN