Loneliness—a clinical primer

Abstract

<p>Introduction</p><p>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.</p><p>Sources of data</p><p>white papers, academic publications.</p><p>Areas of agreement</p><p>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.</p><p>Areas of controversy</p><p>identifying loneliness in the clinic may be time consuming and challenging. There is a scarce robust evidence to support interventions.</p><p>Growing points</p><p>due to increased individualization and incidence of infectious diseases, loneliness is likely to become even more prevalent.</p><p>Areas timely for developing research</p><p>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.</p>