As real as it is to those of us who have had to put up with a broken heart, there is unfortunately no scientific explanation for this elusive phenomenon.

A search in the Medline database results in no relevant study documenting any physiological basis for this condition. PsycInfo likewise has nothing that addresses the topic. Typing the word “heartache” in the U of T library catalogue results in hits that are either song titles or works of fiction.

The department of physiology was contacted with the hope that somebody would at least have an incomplete answer to show there is someone out there trying to find one. “This is no man’s land” was the response from a sympathetic faculty member. He suggested getting in touch with people in the department of psychology.

Out of the several researchers contacted, only one-Professor Keith Oatley, who studies the psychology of fiction-could comment on the subject. “When we experience psychological torment, we describe it in various ways.”

We do feel bodily changes that accompany various emotional states, he says, like changes in breathing rate or churning in the gut. However, he is skeptical of the usage of the term “heartache” as a scientific term, and prefers to think of it as a metaphor for the emotions involved, comparing it to our use of phrases like “being homesick,” “having a gut feeling” and “being rigid with anxiety.”

Dr. Uli Schimmack from UTM-with research interests in happiness and subjective well-being-admits that he has never come across the term “heartache” in his scientific studies, but cited a passage from a book he happened to be reading, Well-Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology: “Health research finds that being divorced or separated has a great effect on rates of death from heart disease in particular, as well as a range of other illnesses; it literally produces broken hearts.”

According to Dr. James Lynch, author of The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequences of Loneliness, the presence of a companion helps suppress fear and physical pain, as well as reduce the “wear and tear” on the heart that occurs under stress and chronic anxiety.

He mentions the story of Antiochus, the dangerously ill son of the Syrian King Seleucus I (312-280 B.C.). Physician Erasistratus, head of the medical school at Alexandria and tending to Antiochus at the time, noticed that his patient’s pulse rate changed whenever his stepmother Stratonice, the lady of his affections, walked into the room. Only marriage “cured” him in the end.

It has been suggested that the love of a spouse acts as a buffer against the harmful effects of factors such as high cholesterol levels, blood pressure, anxiety, and stress. In Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy, author Dr. Dean Ornish cites research that shows the love and support of a wife reduces the risk of angina pectoris-chest pain or discomfort due to coronary heart disease. Chest pain is worst among men with anxiety and family problems, especially conflicts with their wives and children.

But none of these studies directly address the phenomenon of heartache. A story reported in CBC news on-line last October might provide a slightly more relevant clue. Titled “Heartbreaks hurt like headaches,” the article describes a study that suggests any type of social exclusion-from a divorce to being turned down for a date-can be physically painful. Led by social psychology researcher Naomi Eisenberger of UCLA, the study involved putting subjects into a game where they get rejected. When that happens, neural activity increases in a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), just as it does when we experience physical pain. Eisenberger suggests this may be a defence mechanism-once we have encountered sources of pain, we learn to avoid it in the future.

So what is heartache and where does it come from, scientifically speaking? An answer has yet to be found.