The intent of this review was to summarize the limited lit-erature on romantic breakup symptoms that are similar to those of the bereavement syndrome including intrusive thoughts, attempting to control intrusive thoughts and insomnia and more serious complications including heartbreak syndrome and im-mune dysfunction. Much of the discussion regarding romantic breakups, however, is mere speculation based on the bereave-ment and heartbreak syndrome literature. And, the bereavement and heartbreak syndrome literature has the problem that the data are derived primarily from loss related to death and di-vorce. These likely have commonalities with romantic breakups, but also major differences, as in divorce not only involving betrayal and rejection but also having to continue the relation-ship for family reasons and death involving a permanent loss. Even within the loss by divorce and the loss by death literatures, comparisons across studies are problematic given the different measures, the different intervals from the time of loss to the time of assessment, and the different age, ethnic and cultural groups assessed (among other potentially confounding vari-ables).

He suggested that losing an attachment figure means “losing regulatory control of stable daily patterns, of tasks, attention, concentration, sleep, food intake and mood, such that they become fragmented, and the individual has a sense of in

he brain also releases similar chemicals for both romantic breakups and romantic love including pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine and serotonin. As dopamine and norepinephrine levels increased, serotonin levels decreased, and these changes were associated with increased heartrate, trem-bling, flushing, pupil dilation, sleeplessness and loss of appetite (Fisher, 2006). These data are understandable given that these physiological and biochemical responses have generally been noted during stressful situations

ereavement and romantic breakups have been assessed for regional brain activity by positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

In a study conducted by our group, university students who experienced romantic breakups had elevated scores on intrusive thoughts, difficulty controlling intrusive thoughts and insomnia scales

multiple simultaneous spasms of the coronary arteries that would cause enough loss of blood flow to lead to the transient stunning of the hear

Norepinephrine and epinephrine levels

The “broken heart” or heartbreak syndrome has been de-scribed as physical pain in the heart or chest after losing some-one. Although the heartache mimics symptoms of a real heart attack, those with broken heart syndrome typically recover faster

a risk factor for the more serious complications associated with bereavement including broken heart syndrome

gh it is not clear whether those EEG sleep changes pre-ceded or followed the depression

This review of research from these different literatures sug-gests that romantic breakups, like the losses following death or divorce, can lead to bereavement symptoms including intrusive thoughts, difficulty controlling intrusive thoughts and insomnia as well as heartbreak syndrome and compromised immune function.

omantic breakups result in the loss of a person as a regulator of stimulation and arousal modulation that can then lead to these physiological and biochemical effects.

ymptoms including intrusive thoughts and attempts to suppress them and insomnia as well as morbidity factors including broken heart syn-drome and immune dysfunction. Although the broken heart syndrome has mimicked real heart attacks, an-giograms revealed no clogged arteries or permanent heart damage. Compromised immune function may result from reduced vagal activity and increased cortisol and catecholamines leading to increased inflammatory cyto-kines and decreased natural killer cell activity.

Bereavement

A stereotype accessibility perspective (Bodenhausen & Macrae, [ 2]; Dijksterhuis & van Knippenberg, [15]; Kawakami et al., [33]; Macrae et al., [39]) suggests that if American Indians are frequently and consistently associated with only a few traits, images or behavioral tendencies, then powerful, hard-to-break, mental links or stereotypes will be formed between the social category "American Indian" and these behaviors or traits

substratum

Stereotypes are particularly powerful when the target group (i.e., the group represented by the stereotype) is unfamiliar. As Lippman ([36]) wrote in his original definition, stereotypes are "pictures in the head of the world beyond our reach."

Stereotypes are cognitive tools that people use to form impressions of others (Gilbert & Hixon, [24]; Macrae, Milne, & Bodenhausen, [38])