Grief increases heart attack risk

Increased risk of heart attack from the loss of loved ones

10/01/2012

Grief can find expression in a variety of physical symptoms. The most serious health consequences of severe grief include a significantly increased risk of heart attack, report Elizabeth Mostofsky and colleagues from Harvard University in the current issue of the journal „Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association“.

According to US researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School in Boston, the loss of a loved one and subsequent mourning are associated with a significantly increased risk of heart attack. Immediately on the anniversary of the death of loved ones, the risk of a heart attack was 21 times higher than normal, study principal Elizabeth Mostofsky and co-authors Malcolm Maclure, Jane B. Sherwood, Geoffrey H. Tofler, James E. Muller, and Murray A. Mittleman. According to the researchers' latest findings, the risk of heart attack is highest in the first 24 hours after the loss of a loved one and continues to decline as time progresses.

The US researchers base their analysis on the data of just under 2,000 patients who had suffered a heart attack in the period from 1989 to 1994. The study participants were also asked about deaths in their personal environment in order to uncover possible connections with heart attacks. Elizabeth Mostofsky and colleagues found that heart attacks after a death were much more common than would normally have been expected. Thus, the loss of a loved one is obviously associated with a significant health risk. This is highest with respect to a heart attack immediately after the death of a close person and then goes back continuously. During the first week after death, the likelihood of a heart attack is about six times higher than the average risk of heart attack and gradually returns to normal within a month, the researchers report in the journal „Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association“.

But not only the grief for a loved one in itself can significantly increase the likelihood of heart attack, but also the frame factors such as the associated stress, lack of sleep or drug abuse bring a significantly increased risk of heart attack, the US scientists report. For example, study director Elizabeth Mostofsky and colleagues cite the increased risk of heart attack following a bereavement as a reason for the high blood pressure, the increased release of stress hormones and, possibly, greater blood clotting. At the same time, mourners often suffer from sleep and eating disorders, according to the findings of the US scientists. In addition, the grief more often lead to the misuse of drugs, which in turn can represent a critical burden on the heart. Therefore, after the loss of loved ones mourners need urgent support from their fellow human beings to minimize the potential health risks of grief, write the US researchers in their current contribution. (Fp)

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