Battling the Modern Behavioral Epidemic of Loneliness: Suggestions for Research and Interventions
Abstract: Since ancient times, millions of people have died of epidemics of plague, flu, cholera, and other infections caused by bacteria, viruses, or other microorganisms. Major advances in medicine have largely eliminated these mass killers with vaccines and antibiotics. However, modern societies are facing a new kind of epidemics: behavioral epidemics. The annual rates of mortality by suicides and opioid overdose have been escalating over the last 2 decades and today are responsible for the death of 1 American every 5.5 minutes. Consequently, the averageUS life span, which had been rising progressively since mid-1950s, has fallen for the first time.(1) Contributing to these epidemics of suicides and opioid use is not a pathogenic microbe, but rather a hard to detect and lethal behavioral toxin of loneliness. Loneliness may be defined as subjective distress resulting from a discrepancy between desired and perceived social relationships. (2) Loneliness (or perceived social isolation) is associated with but distinct from objective social isolation, which is defined by the number of persons in the environment. Loneliness is a subjective state and a personality trait determined by genetics and hormonal and cerebral pathophysiology.