Loneliness is the inability to form meaningful relationships. It expresses itself through a spectrum of social impairments that cause and sustain loneliness through multiple contributory pathways. This experience requires studying multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, sociology, and clinical medicine.
A recent review in the journal Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews presents a multidimensional model of loneliness. Study: A translational neuroscience perspective on loneliness: Narrative review focusing on social interaction, illness and oxytocin . Image Credit: Eakachai Leesin / Shutterstock The Global Initiative on Loneliness and Connection describes it as "a subjective unpleasant or distressing feeling of a lack of connection to other people, along with a desire for more, or more satisfying, social relationships .
' Loneliness is, therefore, both subjective and distressing. It cannot be assessed entirely or predicted by objective parameters such as social isolation or a small social network. As the birth rate falls in the developed world, loneliness may be expected to rise in prevalence among an aging population.
This motivated the current study, which was conducted as a narrative review based on currently available peer-reviewed literature on loneliness from various perspectives. In both animal and human studies, these included social interactions, psychiatric illness, physical disease, touch, and oxytocin. Translational model for loneliness summarizing central fin.
