SynthesisTheoretical medicine and bioethics2010
Existential loneliness and end-of-life care: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Theoretical medicine and bioethics, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Loneliness among adults at the end of life: A systematic review of prevalence and correlates.Palliative medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring experiences of loneliness among stroke survivors living in the community: a secondary qualitative analysis.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- The transition to motherhood: a qualitative study of new mothers' experiences of loneliness and associated challenges.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- The development and preliminary validation of a multidimensional assessment scale for loneliness in nursing homes.International journal of nursing studies advances · 2026Article
- The Personhood Pentadigm: A transcultural framework for analyzing existential distress in palliative care.International journal of nursing sciences · 2026Article
- Connected by Nature: Nature-Based Intervention to Support Young Adults with Advanced Cancer.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Experiences of loneliness among older deaf adults who use sign language.Journal of deaf studies and deaf education · 2026Article
- "I just feel alone and by myself": how adolescents experience loneliness when their parent has cancer.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Psychometric validation, factor structure, and measurement invariance of the Arabic brief existential loneliness scale.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Analysing comfort with primary care discussions and openness to social prescribing as mediators of the associations between loneliness and wellbeing among Canadians aged 55 and older.BMC primary care · 2025Article
- Loneliness and Social Isolation in the Care of the Seriously Ill Older Adult.Clinics in geriatric medicine · 2025Review
- The family talk intervention prevent the feeling of loneliness - a long term follow up after a parents life-threatening illness.BMC palliative care · 2024Article
- [Loneliness at the end of life].Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz · 2024Review
- Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of an Attitude about Euthanasia Scale in Portuguese Older Adults with Mixed Anxiety-Depressive Disorder.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- "My Scar": Posttraumatic Loneliness as a Source of Pain and Resource for Coping.Qualitative health research · 2024Article
- Article
- Perspectives on existential loneliness. Narrations by older people in different care contexts.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2023Article
- "It's a feeling of complete disconnection": experiences of existential loneliness from youth to older adulthood.BMC psychology · 2023Article
- Giving a voice to patients at high risk of dying in the intensive care unit: a multiple source approach.Intensive care medicine · 2023Article
- "They want you to know who they really are inside of the old visage"-biographical storytelling as a methodological tool to explore emotional challenges in old age.BMC geriatrics · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Patients with a life-threatening illness can be confronted with various types of loneliness, one of which is existential loneliness (EL). Since the experience of EL is extremely disruptive, the issue of EL is relevant for the practice of end-of-life care. Still, the literature on EL has generated little discussion and empirical substantiation and has never been systematically reviewed. In order to systematically review the literature, we (1) identified the existential loneliness literature; (2) established an organising framework for the review; (3) conducted a conceptual analysis of existential loneliness; and (4) discussed its relevance for end-of-life care. We found that the EL concept is profoundly unclear. Distinguishing between three dimensions of EL-as a condition, as an experience, and as a process of inner growth-leads to some conceptual clarification. Analysis of these dimensions on the basis of their respective key notions-everpresent, feeling, defence; death, awareness, difficult communication; and inner growth, giving meaning, authenticity-further clarifies the concept. Although none of the key notions are unambiguous, they may function as a starting point for the development of care strategies on EL at the end of life.
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