Abstract: In the early 1990s, Japanese scholars Dote and Satoh reported a unique, reversible cardiomyopathy that appeared to be precipitated by acute emotional stress. This syndrome was initially named stress cardiomyopathy (SCM) and was also called Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy (TC). SCM has subsequently been referred to as apical ballooning syndrome and “broken heart” syndrome. The clinical manifestation of SCM is transient, acute-myocardial-infarction-like chest pain but its pathogenesis is not clear. This review mainly introduces current research on the pathogenesis of stress cardiomyopathy at home and abroad in recent years.