SynthesisSocial psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology2022
Loneliness and the onset of new mental health problems in the general population.
Synthesis in Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 149 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
149 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 303 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association Between Loneliness and Hikikomori Symptoms. A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of methods in psychiatric research · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of interventions addressing perinatal mental health on loneliness and/or satisfaction with social support: systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of interventions for social isolation, loneliness, and social participation in older adults with hearing loss: results from a systematic review.Systematic reviews · 2026Pooled it
- Exploring Loneliness in Clinical and Sub-Clinical Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026Pooled it
- Loneliness without an epidemic: gendered pathways, health consequences, and intervention gaps among men in the United States.Frontiers in public health · 2026Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The experience of loneliness among people with psychosis: Qualitative meta-synthesis.PloS one · 2024Pooled it
- A systematic review of the effect of university positive psychology courses on student psychological wellbeing.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Attachment Styles in Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical psychology & psychotherapyPooled it
- Consummatory deficits in close social reward predict inflammation-induced depressed mood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Application of an egocentric social network approach to examine changes in social connections following treatment for anxiety and depression: A novel measurement tool for clinical trials research?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Trial
- Large-Scale Neuroimaging and Genetic Analyses of the Human Thalamus in Loneliness.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Health consequences of spousal health shocks: evidence from a matched event study in the United States.American journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Distinct prosocial behaviors associated with persistent symptom trajectories in psychiatric disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- What makes a lonely child: environmental, health, and multimodal neuroimaging correlates of prospective loneliness in the ABCD study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Loneliness in Focus: Proposing a Resident Curriculum.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2026Article
- Vicarious defeat stress (VDS) is not a simple substitute for chronic social defeat stress (CSDS): a comparative study on behavioral and molecular mechanisms in both stress-induced anxiety- and depression-like behaviors.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2026Article
- Contributors to co-occurring chronic loneliness and depression and anxiety and the role of adverse childhood experiences.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2026Article
- Social Connection and Epigenetic Aging: Insights from DNA Methylation Clocks.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- The dynamics of loneliness: Longitudinal associations of anhedonia and dampening in a clinical sample of depressed individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
89 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
purposeLoneliness is associated with poor health including premature mortality. There are cross-sectional associations with depression, anxiety, psychosis, and other mental health outcomes. However, it is not known whether loneliness is causally linked with the new onset of mental health problems in the general population. Longitudinal studies are key to understanding this relationship. We synthesized evidence from longitudinal studies investigating the relationship between loneliness and new onset of mental health problems, in the general population.
methodWe systematically searched six electronic databases, unpublished sources, and hand-searched references, up to August 2021. We conducted a meta-analysis of eight independent cohorts and narrative synthesis of the remaining studies.
resultsWe included 32 studies, of which the majority focused on depression. Our narrative synthesis found most studies show loneliness at baseline which is associated with the subsequent new onset of depression. The few studies on anxiety and self-harm also showed a positive association. Our meta-analysis found a pooled adjusted odds ratio of 2.33 (95% CI 1.62-3.34) for risk of new onset depression in adults who were often lonely compared with people who were not often lonely. This should be interpreted with caution given evidence of heterogeneity.
conclusionLoneliness is a public mental health issue. There is growing evidence it is associated with the onset of depression and other common mental health problems. Future studies should explore its impact across the age range and in more diverse populations, look beyond depression, and explore the mechanisms involved with a view to better informing appropriate interventions.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.