Loneliness-a clinical primer.

Abstract

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. white papers, academic publications. 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. identifying loneliness in the clinic may be time consuming and challenging. There is a scarce robust evidence to support interventions. due to increased individualization and incidence of infectious diseases, loneliness is likely to become even more prevalent. 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.