Does positive emotional stress trigger takotsubo syndrome and affect its phenotypic presentation compared to negative emotional stress?
Takotsubo syndrome can be triggered by positive emotional events ('happy heart syndrome'), which are more frequently associated with the midventricular variant compared to classic negative emotional triggers.
Our data illustrate that TTS can be triggered by not only negative but also positive life events. While patient characteristics were similar between groups, the midventricular TTS type was more prevalent among the 'happy hearts' than among the 'broken hearts'. Presumably, despite their distinct nature, happy and sad life events may share similar final common emotional pathways, which can ultimately trigger TTS.
Ghadri et al. (2016) studied this question.