Can ‘broken heart syndrome’ be cured? Woman who developed condition after mother’s death joins new drug trial

People have always said heartbreak actually hurts. Poets love the idea. Movies bank on it. Doctors used to roll their eyes and call it a figure of speech. But here’s the kicker: modern medicine’s learned heartbreak really can break your heart, at least for some.This year, researchers in the UK kicked off the first big drug trial for the bizarre and devastating “broken heart syndrome” (the actual medical name is takotsubo cardiomyopathy).

Woman with ‘broken heart’ syndrome: What happened?

Brenda Young’s, a 57-year-old social worker from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, life changed last November, when she felt an “intense, overwhelming pain in the middle of my chest” minutes after witnessing her mother's death,“I just remember thinking ‘this cannot be happening, not today,'” she told scientists at the University of Aberdeen, as reported by People.

“I knew there was something really wrong.”That crushing chest pain landed her in the hospital. At first, doctors thought it was a classic heart attack. But her tests told a different story.She’d developed takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a rare condition where major emotional or physical stress basically stuns your heart. Instead of a blocked artery, the heart muscle itself suddenly weakens. Brenda’s now part of a long, complex study running across several countries, one that might finally uncover a real treatment.

For heart doctors, it’s a big deal: after all these years, no one’s quite cracked why it happens or how to fix it.

What is ‘broken heart syndrome’?

If you want the science: back in the '90s, Japanese doctors named it after an octopus trap (“takotsubo”) because the heart changes shape in this odd way during the attack. The event is usually set off by stress — losing a loved one, divorce, scary health news, accidents, money problems, even huge surprises (good or bad).

Sometimes, if pure joy triggers it, people call it “happy heart syndrome.”The theory is, your stress hormones (like adrenaline) flood your system, and the heart just can’t handle the surge. It stops pumping right — think fast, hard chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness — symptoms that look exactly like a heart attack. Many people get rushed into emergency care because, for all anyone knows, it really might be a heart attack.But with broken heart syndrome, arteries aren’t blocked. The muscle just gives out, usually bouncing back over a week or so. Still, doctors warn it’s not as harmless as it seems. Complications can include heart failure, erratic heartbeats, blood clots, and, on rare occasions, it can be deadly.Oddly, it’s women who get hit the most by this; almost 90% of diagnosed cases happen to women over 50. The thinking is, hormonal changes probably play a huge role, but scientists are still digging into why.Right now, there isn’t a drug aimed straight at broken heart syndrome. Doctors do what they can: beta blockers, blood thinners, things you’d use for any other kind of heart issue, and just try to help people recover. But a real, proven treatment? That’s still missing.

Inside the groundbreaking trial

This new study, per The Guardian and BBC, is looking to see if a targeted therapy can do what nothing else has so far: tame inflammation, help the heart heal, and stop people from getting hit by this syndrome again.

Researchers say it’s been ignored for too long, mostly because people usually recover fast. But now, we know some patients drag the symptoms around for months, even years: tiredness, anxiety, their heart not really working right.

Sometimes it comes back, too.What’s really getting attention is the mind-body link. Emotional trauma and your heart: the connection is suddenly impossible to ignore. Chronic stress already increases the risk of heart disease, strokes, and inflammation.

Takotsubo is like the sharp end of that: pure emotion causing real, lasting heart changes in just hours.In Brenda’s case, sudden grief triggered a chemical meltdown. For some people, losing someone unleashes a storm of stress hormones so strong it scrambles heart function in a flash.But one of the hardest things is that most patients end up feeling written off. People still don’t quite believe that sadness alone can put you in the hospital.

The symptoms seem “all in your head” — except they aren’t. Doctors can actually see the damage with scans and blood tests. “Broken heart” syndrome isn’t some poetic metaphor anymore. It’s a medical fact.

The road ahead

This month, researchers from the university announced the beginning of a seven-year study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).Scientists will assess if a class of medications that relax blood vessels, called renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibitors, could be an effective long-term course of treatment for broken heart syndrome.Young is now going to be one of nearly 1,000 takotsubo patients from 40 hospitals taking part in the world's first clinical trial for broken heart syndrome with the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.Meanwhile, Professor Dana Dawson, chair in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Aberdeen, is leading the study.Researchers now hope the new drug trial may finally help transform understanding of the syndrome from an unusual medical curiosity into a treatable cardiovascular disorder.That’s why this trial is a big deal. Scientists want to take it from weird curiosity to something treatable, real — another way of reminding us that what happens inside your head can change your body in ways we’ve only started to understand.