Loneliness - a clinical primer

Abstract

Introduction: loneliness is prevalent worldwide. It is also associated with an increased risk for depression, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, stroke and early death. As such, loneliness is a major public health issue. This paper summarizes the salient points clinicians should know and encourages clinicians to assume an active part in the identification, mitigation and prevention of loneliness. Sources of data: white papers, academic publications. Areas of agreement: loneliness is a distressful subjective experience, which does not always correlate with social isolation. Both internal (personal) and external (contextual, societal) factors determine whether an individual would feel lonely in a given situation. Areas of controversy: identifying loneliness in the clinic may be time consuming and challenging. There is a scarce robust evidence to support interventions. Growing points: due to increased individualization and incidence of infectious diseases, loneliness is likely to become even more prevalent. Areas timely for developing research: more research is needed to further elucidate the health impacts of loneliness as well as to find evidence-based interventions to prevent and mitigate loneliness that could then be implemented by policy-makers and clinicians.