eli5 What does it mean when someone “dies of depression”?

Question

Does that mean they killed themselves? Kind of like we say someone died of cancer instead of multi-organ failure?

In: 1

Answer 1

Usually it’s suicide, or as other posters have mentioned they stopped taking care of themselves and whatever underlying medical issue got them.

But, there is a legitimate medical condition called broken heart syndrome (Takotsubo cardiomyopathy), where a flood of hormones after a stressful situation causes congestive heart failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takotsubo_cardiomyopathy