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726 to 750 of 969Loneliness, health, and mortality in old age: a national longitudinal study.
This study examined the relationship between loneliness, health, and mortality using a U.S. nationally representative sample of 2101 adults aged 50 years and over from the 2002 to 2008 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. We estimated the effect of loneliness at one point on mortality over the subsequent six years, and investigated social relationships, health behaviors, and health outcomes as potential mechanisms through which loneliness affects mortality risk among older Americans. We operationalized health outcomes as depressive symptoms, self-rated health, and functional limitations, and we conceptualized the relationships between loneliness and each health outcome as reciprocal and dynamic. We found that feelings of loneliness were associated with increased mortality risk over a 6-year period, and that this effect was not explained by social relationships or health behaviors bu…
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Gender differences on the impacts of social exclusion on mortality among older Japanese: AGES cohort study.
To evaluate the gender-specific impact of social exclusion on the mortality of older Japanese adults, we performed a prospective data analysis using the data of the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study (AGES). In AGES, we surveyed functionally independent residents aged 65 years or older who lived in six municipalities in Aichi prefecture, Japan. We gathered baseline information from 13,310 respondents in 2003. Information on mortality was obtained from municipal databases of the public long-term care insurance system. All participants were followed for up to 4 years. We evaluated social exclusion in terms of the combination of social isolation, social inactivity, and relative poverty. Cox's proportional hazard model revealed that socially excluded older people were at significantly increased risk (9-34%) for premature mortality. Those with simultaneously relative poverty and social iso…
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Nilsson KK (2012)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usJournal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry14 citations Early maladaptive schemas and functional impairment in remitted bipolar disorder patients.
Background and objectives: Previous research indicates that low self-esteem is associated with functional impairment in remitted bipolar disorder patients. The present study aimed to elucidate this area further by exploring the relationship between different self-schemas and key functional outcome domains.
Methods: The study consisted of 49 remitted bipolar disorders patients who completed the Young Schema Questionnaire-Short Version (YSQ-S3) and the Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS).
Results: A hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the schemas Social Isolation, Failure to Achieve, Dependence, Vulnerability to Harm and Illness, Emotional Inhibition, Insufficient Self-Control, and Pessimism accounted for 28% of the variance in functional impairment when controlling for length of remission and subsyndromal depressive symptoms.
Limitations: The WSAS as a self-report scale mea…
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Sexual attitudes, behaviours and acculturation among young migrants in Shanghai.
China's rates of internal migration increased to an all-time high of over 200 million individuals at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Yet, there is a dearth of information on the lives of young migrant populations. The aim of this study was to explore how migration influences the sexual attitudes and behaviours of 18-24-year-old migrant men and women in Shanghai, China. A total of 64 migrants participated in 10 focus-group discussions and 20 in-depth interviews. Guided by acculturation theory, coded data were organised into analytic matrices to compare themes across participants. Factors associated with increased sexual-risk behaviours include acculturative stress, discrimination leading to social isolation, conflicts between traditional and modern city values and increased sexual opportunities. Premarital sex, cohabitation, unprotected sex and visiting sex workers are common a…
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Congdon P (2012)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology20 citations Latent variable model for suicide risk in relation to social capital and socio-economic status.
Background: There is little evidence on the association between suicide outcomes (ideation, attempts, self-harm) and social capital. This paper investigates such associations using a structural equation model based on health survey data, and allowing for both individual and contextual risk factors.
Methods: Social capital and other major risk factors for suicide, namely socioeconomic status and social isolation, are modelled as latent variables that are proxied (or measured) by observed indicators or question responses for survey subjects. These latent scales predict suicide risk in the structural component of the model. Also relevant to explaining suicide risk are contextual variables, such as area deprivation and region of residence, as well as the subject's demographic status. The analysis is based on the 2007 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey and includes 7,403 English subjects. A B…
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"You feel like you can't live anymore": suicide from the perspectives of Canadian men who experience depression.
Severe depression is a known risk factor for suicide, yet worldwide men's suicide rates continue to outnumber reported rates of men's depression. While acknowledging that the pathways to suicide are diverse, and being mindful of the complex challenges inherent to studying suicide, we interviewed men who experienced depression as a means to better understanding the processes they used to counter and contemplate suicide. This novel qualitative study provides insights on how masculine roles, identities and relations mediate depression-related suicidal ideation in a cohort of 38 men in Canada, ranging in age from 24 to 50 years-old. Constant comparative analyses yielded the core category of reconciling despair in which men responded to severe depression and suicidal ideation by following two pathways. To counter suicide actions, connecting with family, peers and health care professionals and…
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Martens WH (2011)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usPsychoanalytic review3 citations Sadism linked to loneliness: psychodynamic dimensions of the sadistic serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
In this article the psychodynamic link between loneliness and sadism is examined on basis of a case report of the sadistic and cannibalistic serial killer Jeffery Dahmer. Envy, shame/rage mechanism, a disturbed oral-sadistic development, castration fear and severe feelings of inferiority, the conviction of being unlovable and unacceptable, need to diminish tension, powerful and sadistic fantasies as a consequence of inadequate and frustrated parenting, and reality distortion appear to be involved in sadistic etiology.
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Social isolation, C-reactive protein, and coronary heart disease mortality among community-dwelling adults.
Social isolation confers increased risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) events and mortality. In two recent studies, low levels of social integration among older adults were related to higher levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, suggesting a possible biological link between social isolation and CHD. The current study examined relationships among social isolation, CRP, and 15-year CHD death in a community sample of US adults aged 40 years and older without a prior history of myocardial infarction. A nested case-cohort study was conducted from a parent cohort of community-dwelling adults from the southeastern New England region of the United States (N = 2321) who were interviewed in 1989 and 1990. CRP levels were measured from stored sera provided by the nested case-cohort (n = 370), which included all cases of CHD death observed through 2005 (n = 48), and a rando…
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The association between social isolation and DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders: wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions.
Objective: The objective of this study is to document the prevalence of social isolation from close friends and religious group members and to test the association of having infrequently contacted close friends and members of religious groups with the current DSM-IV mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders.
Method: We conducted a secondary data analysis based on a cross-sectional, population-based study conducted in 2004-2005 that consists of a nationally representative sample of 34,653 American community-dwelling adults aged 18 years and older. Mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders were assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview Schedule-DSM-IV version. Due to missing values for social network characteristics, we focused on 33,368 subjects in this study.
Results: We found that many Americans lacked frequently contacted close friends (10.1%; 95% …
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Lutgendorf SK, DeGeest K, Dahmoush L, Farley D, Penedo F, Bender D, Goodheart M, Buekers TE, Mendez L, Krueger G, Clevenger L, Lubaroff DM, Sood AK, Cole SW (2011)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usBrain, behavior, and immunity139 citations Social isolation is associated with elevated tumor norepinephrine in ovarian carcinoma patients.
Noradrenergic pathways have been implicated in growth and progression of ovarian cancer. Intratumoral norepinephrine (NE) has been shown to increase with stress in an animal cancer model, but little is known regarding how tumor NE varies with disease stage and with biobehavioral factors in ovarian cancer patients. This study examined relationships between pre-surgical measures of social support, depressed mood, perceived stress, anxiety, tumor histology and tumor catecholamine (NE and epinephrine [E]) levels among 68 ovarian cancer patients. We also examined whether associations observed between biobehavioral measures and tumor catecholamines extended to other compartments. Higher NE levels were found in advanced stage (p=0.006) and higher grade (p=0.001) tumors. Adjusting for stage, grade, and peri-surgical beta blockers, patients with a perceived lack of social support had significantl…
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Residential satisfaction, sense of belonging and loneliness among older adults living in the community and in care facilities.
The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of residential satisfaction and sense of belonging on loneliness in old age in two different contexts: the community and the residential care facility. We used two surveys of 1106 non-institutionalized and 234 institutionalized older adults, aged 60 years or more in Spain. Results from structural equation modeling and path analysis suggest that residential satisfaction would positively affect sense of belonging and would be negatively associated with loneliness in both residential environments, thus playing a protective role against the experience of loneliness.
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Living alone and alcohol-related mortality: a population-based cohort study from Finland.
Background: Social isolation and living alone are increasingly common in industrialised countries. However, few studies have investigated the potential public health implications of this trend. We estimated the relative risk of death from alcohol-related causes among individuals living alone and determined whether this risk changed after a large reduction in alcohol prices.
Methods and findings: We conducted a population-based natural experimental study of a change in the price of alcohol that occurred because of new laws enacted in Finland in January and March of 2004, utilising national registers. The data are based on an 11% sample of the Finnish population aged 15-79 y supplemented with an oversample of deaths. The oversample covered 80% of all deaths during the periods January 1, 2000-December 31, 2003 (the four years immediately before the price reduction of alcohol), and January 1…
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Oxytocin mediates social neuroprotection after cerebral ischemia.
Background and purpose: The reduced incidence, morbidity, and mortality of stroke among humans with strong social support have been well-documented; however, the mechanisms underlying these socially mediated phenomena remain unknown, but may involve oxytocin (OT), a hormone that modulates some aspects of social behavior in humans and other animals.
Methods: In the present study, adult male mice were socially isolated (housed individually) or socially paired (housed with an ovariectomized female); social pairing increased hypothalamic OT gene expression. To determine whether a causal relationship exists between increased OT and improved stroke outcome, mice were treated with exogenous OT or OT receptor antagonist beginning 1 week before induction of experimental stroke via middle cerebral artery occlusion.
Results: Relative to social isolation, social housing attenuated infarct size, neur…
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The relation between objective and subjective domains of recovery among persons with schizophrenia-related disorders.
In recent years, growing emphasis has been placed on the vision of recovery, which is broadly organized into two types: clinical objective versus personal subjective. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relation between objective clinical recovery as defined by symptom severity and level of functioning, and subjective personal recovery as defined by quality of life, domains of personal confidence and hope, willingness to ask for help, reliance on others and no domination by symptoms. One hundred and fifty-nine persons diagnosed with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder completed measures of recovery, quality of life, perceived social support and emotional loneliness. Clinicians used the Modified Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Global Assessment Functioning Scale to assess the severity of symptoms and level of functioning. Results revealed no direct correla…
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Chicken soup really is good for the soul: "comfort food" fulfills the need to belong.
Theories of social surrogacy and embodied cognition assume that cognitive associations with nonhuman stimuli can be affectively charged. In the current research, we examined whether the "comfort" of comfort foods comes from affective associations with relationships. Two experiments support the hypotheses that comfort foods are associated with relationships and alleviate loneliness. Experiment 1 found that the consumption of comfort foods automatically activates relationship-related concepts. Experiment 2 found that comfort foods buffer against belongingness threats in people who already have positive associations with relationships (i.e., are secure in attachment style). Implications for social surrogacy, need to belong, embodied cognition, and eating behavior are discussed.
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Elevated macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is associated with depressive symptoms, blunted cortisol reactivity to acute stress, and lowered morning cortisol.
Macrophage Migration Inhibitory Factor (MIF) is a proinflammatory cytokine produced by leukocytes and the secretory cells of the HPA axis. Remarkably, glucocorticoids (GC) induce leukocyte MIF secretion, while MIF renders leukocytes insensitive to the anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids. In light of reported associations between dysphoric states, increased inflammatory activity, and reduced GC sensitivity, the current study investigated the association between MIF, loneliness and depressive symptoms. The study further investigated the relation between plasma MIF and markers of HPA function, i.e., diurnal cortisol and the cortisol response to acute stress. Healthy university undergraduates (N=126; 64 women) were invited to participate if their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory or UCLA loneliness scale were in the upper or lower quintile of their peer group. Plasma MIF and s…
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Risk factors for bereavement outcome: a multivariate approach.
Bereavement increases the risk of ill health, but only a minority of bereaved suffers lasting health impairment. Because only this group is likely to profit from bereavement intervention, early identification is important. Previous research is limited, because of cross sectional designs, small numbers of risk factors, and use of a single measure of bereavement outcome. Our longitudinal study avoids these pitfalls by examining the impact of a large set of potential risk factors on grief depressive symptoms, emotional loneliness, and positive mood following recent bereavement (3 years maximum). Participants provided information 3 times over 6 months. A multivariate approach was chosen to avoid reporting spurious results due to confounding. As expected, risk factors were differentially related to different outcome measures. For example, being high in anxious attachment and having lost a par…
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Does social capital determine health? Evidence from eight transition countries.
There is growing interest in the role of social relationships in explaining patterns of health. We contribute to this debate by investigating the impact of social capital on self-reported health for eight countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States. We rely on three indicators of social capital at the individual level (trust, participation in local organisations, social isolation) and employ alternative procedures to estimate consistently the impact of social capital on health. The three social capital indicators are choice variables and are hence, by definition, endogenously determined. We attempt to circumvent the endogeneity problems by using instrumental variable estimates. Our results show that the individual degree of trust is positively and significantly correlated with health, this being true with least squares estimators as well as when relying on instrumental variable…
matched on Social Isolation (mesh), social isolation (text)
Loneliness and cortisol: momentary, day-to-day, and trait associations.
In attempts to understand the social determinants of health, strong associations have been found between measures of loneliness, physiological stress processes, and physical and mental health outcomes. Feelings of loneliness are hypothesized to have implications for physiological stress processes, including activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In a community sample of young adults, multilevel modeling was used to examine whether trait and state feelings of loneliness were related to changes in levels of the stress-sensitive hormone cortisol, and whether the associations between loneliness and cortisol were mediated or moderated by the presence of concurrent depression or high levels of chronic life stress. Results indicated that trait loneliness was associated with a flattening of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. In addition, both daily and momentary state variations in…
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Postnatal NMDA receptor ablation in corticolimbic interneurons confers schizophrenia-like phenotypes.
Cortical GABAergic dysfunction may underlie the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. Here, we characterized a mouse strain in which the essential NR1 subunit of the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) was selectively eliminated in 40-50% of cortical and hippocampal interneurons in early postnatal development. Consistent with the NMDAR hypofunction theory of schizophrenia, distinct schizophrenia-related symptoms emerged after adolescence, including novelty-induced hyperlocomotion, mating and nest-building deficits, as well as anhedonia-like and anxiety-like behaviors. Many of these behaviors were exacerbated by social isolation stress. Social memory, spatial working memory and prepulse inhibition were also impaired. Reduced expression of glutamic acid decarboxylase 67 and parvalbumin was accompanied by disinhibition of cortical excitatory neurons and reduced neuronal synch…
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Grant N, Hamer M, Steptoe A (2009)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usAnnals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine152 citations Social isolation and stress-related cardiovascular, lipid, and cortisol responses.
Background: Social support is a strong and consistent predictor of health outcomes, and social isolation predicts increased morbidity and mortality. The mediating processes are not completely understood.
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate associations between social isolation and cardiovascular and lipid responses to acute stress in the laboratory, and cortisol profiles over the day.
Methods: Cardiovascular and lipid responses to acute stress tasks, and salivary cortisol monitoring, were carried out in 238 healthy middle-aged men and women from the Whitehall II cohort. Social isolation was measured using an adapted version of the Close Persons Questionnaire.
Results: Social isolation was associated with slower post-task recovery of systolic blood pressure in men and women, a higher cholesterol response to stress in men only, and also with larger cortisol awakening respon…
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Mapping community determinants of heat vulnerability.
Background: The evidence that heat waves can result in both increased deaths and illness is substantial, and concern over this issue is rising because of climate change. Adverse health impacts from heat waves can be avoided, and epidemiologic studies have identified specific population and community characteristics that mark vulnerability to heat waves.
Objectives: We situated vulnerability to heat in geographic space and identified potential areas for intervention and further research.
Methods: We mapped and analyzed 10 vulnerability factors for heat-related morbidity/mortality in the United States: six demographic characteristics and two household air conditioning variables from the U.S. Census Bureau, vegetation cover from satellite images, and diabetes prevalence from a national survey. We performed a factor analysis of these 10 variables and assigned values of increasing vulnerabili…
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Adverse childhood experiences and adult risk factors for age-related disease: depression, inflammation, and clustering of metabolic risk markers.
Objective: To understand why children exposed to adverse psychosocial experiences are at elevated risk for age-related disease, such as cardiovascular disease, by testing whether adverse childhood experiences predict enduring abnormalities in stress-sensitive biological systems, namely, the nervous, immune, and endocrine/metabolic systems.
Design: A 32-year prospective longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort.
Setting: New Zealand.
Participants: A total of 1037 members of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Main Exposures During their first decade of life, study members were assessed for exposure to 3 adverse psychosocial experiences: socioeconomic disadvantage, maltreatment, and social isolation.
Main outcome measures: At age 32 years, study members were assessed for the presence of 3 age-related-disease risks: major depression, high inflammation level…
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Theeke LA (2009)MEDLINE-indexed journal, not yet read by usArchives of psychiatric nursing174 citations Predictors of loneliness in U.S. adults over age sixty-five.
The purpose of this study was to examine sociodemographic and health-related risks for loneliness among older adults using Health and Retirement Study Data. Overall prevalence of loneliness was 19.3%. Marital status, self-report of health, number of chronic illnesses, gross motor impairment, fine motor impairment, and living alone were predictors of loneliness. Age, female gender, use of home care, and frequency of healthcare visits were not predictive. Loneliness is a prevalent problem for older adults in the United States with its own health-related risks. Future research of interventions targeting identified risks would enhance the evidence base for nursing and the problem of loneliness.
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How does stigma "get under the skin"?: the mediating role of emotion regulation.
Stigma is a risk factor for mental health problems, but few studies have considered how stigma leads to psychological distress. The present research examined whether specific emotion-regulation strategies account for the stigma-distress association. In an experience-sampling study, rumination and suppression occurred more on days when stigma-related stressors were reported than on days when these stressors were not reported, and rumination mediated the relationship between stigma-related stress and psychological distress. The effect of social support on distress was moderated by the concealability of the stigma: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) respondents reported more isolation and less social support than African American respondents subsequent to experiencing stigma-related stressors, whereas African Americans reported greater social support than LGB participants. Social isolation me…
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