Social contacts and loneliness in people with psychotic and mood disorders
Abstract
Background Social relations can be measured through: a) objective indicators, i.e. the number of social contacts in a given time interval or b) subjective indicators, i.e. feelings of loneliness. Comparing subjective and objective indicators in patients with psychotic and mood disorders may help to understand whether diagnosis-specific interventions should be designed for increasing their social relations. In this study we assessed social contacts outside home, work environments and mental health services, which may be increased by these interventions. We also explored feelings of loneliness which could influence readiness of patients to participate in interventions. Methods 100 patients in outpatient mental health care were asked to: a) list their social contacts; b) report their feelings of loneliness on a validated five point Likert scale. Multiple logistic regression models were used to test associations of diagnostic categories with: a) having more than one social contact in the previous week; b) reporting at least moderate feelings of loneliness. Results Patients had on average 1.7 (SD=1.7) social contacts in the previous week (median=1.0); 77 patients reported at least moderate feelings of loneliness. Patients with psychotic disorders (n=30) showed a statistical trend towards having just one or no contacts in the week before the assessment (Odds ratio, OR=2.246, p=.087). Patients with mood disorders were more likely to report at least moderate feelings of loneliness (O…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Individuals living with serious mental disorders typically have few social contacts in the offline world.
“individuals living with serious mental disorders typically have few social contacts in the offline world”
From Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice (2020) · cites this paper as Giacco, Palumbo, Strappelli, Catapano, & Priebe, 2016
Individuals living with serious mental disorders experience high rates of loneliness.
“and also experience high rates of loneliness (Badcock et al., 2015; Giacco, Palumbo, Strappelli, Catapano, & Priebe, 2016).”
From Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice (2020) · cites this paper as Giacco, Palumbo, Strappelli, Catapano, & Priebe, 2016
Cites
Social Relationships and Mortality Risk: A Meta-analytic Review
Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010) · PLoS Medicine · doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316 · Cited by 7,272 · cited 1× · see citing works
“It has been identified as a strong predictor of long-term morbidity and mortality in the general population, comparable to established risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption [2–3].”
BackgroundThe clinical significance of loneliness: a literature review
Heinrich, L. M., & Gullone, E. (2006) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2006.04.002 · Cited by 1,986 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Feelings of loneliness in people with mood disorders may relate to perceptions of “hopelessness” and to reduced enjoyment of social contacts even when people have contacts [24].”
BackgroundLoneliness: human nature and the need for social connection
(2008) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.46-1765 · Cited by 1,572 · see citing works
Social isolation: a predictor of mortality comparable to traditional clinical risk factors
Pantell, M., Rehkopf, D., Jutte, D., Syme, S. L., Balmes, J., & Adler, N. (2013) · American Journal of Public Health · doi:10.2105/ajph.2013.301261 · Cited by 696 · see citing works
Hawthorne, G. (2006) · Social Indicators Research · doi:10.1007/s11205-005-7746-y · Cited by 450 · see citing works
Exploring the roles of approach and avoidance in depression: An integrative model
Trew, J. L. (2011) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2011.07.007 · Cited by 316 · cited 1× · see citing works
“depression may experience lack of drive and motivation to social contacts [11–13].”
BackgroundBengtsson-Tops, A., & Hansson, L. (2001) · International Journal of Social Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/002076400104700307 · Cited by 196 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice
Naslund, J. A., Bondre, A., Torous, J., & Aschbrenner, K. A. (2020) · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science · doi:10.1007/s41347-020-00134-x · Cited by 746 · see citing works
Priebe, S., Chevalier, A., Hamborg, T., Golden, E., King, M., & Pistrang, N. (2020) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.2019.42 · Cited by 95 · see citing works
Biagianti, B., Quraishi, S. H., & Schlosser, D. A. (2018) · Psychiatric Services · doi:10.1176/appi.ps.201700283 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
“Individuals with psychotic disorders are particularly affected by loneliness (4), having on average less than two social contacts per week (5).”
BackgroundMa, R., Wang, J., Lloyd-Evans, B., Marston, L., & Johnson, S. (2021) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/s12888-021-03430-9 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Understanding the experience of “burnout” in first-episode psychosis carers
Onwumere, J., Sirykaite, S., Schulz, J., Man, E., James, G., Afsharzadegan, R., Khan, S., Harvey, R., Souray, J., & Raune, D. (2018) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2018.02.003 · Cited by 30 · see citing works
Internet use for social interaction by people with psychosis: a systematic review
Jakubowska, A., Kaselionyte, J., Priebe, S., & Giacco, D. (2019) · Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking · doi:10.1089/cyber.2018.0554 · Cited by 24 · see citing works
How does social distancing during COVID-19 affect negative moods and memory?
Zhang, W., Gao, F., Gross, J., Shrum, L. J., & Hayne, H. (2021) · Memory · doi:10.1080/09658211.2020.1857774 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
Onwumere, J., Glover, N., Whittaker, S., Rahim, S., Chu Man, L., James, G., Khan, S., Afsharzadegan, R., Seneviratne, S., Harvey, R., et al. (2018) · Early Intervention in Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/eip.12430 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
- Authors
- Giacco, D., Palumbo, C., Strappelli, N., Catapano, F., & Priebe, S.
- Affiliations
- Queen Mary University of London (GB)
- East London NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (IT)
- Corresponding author
- Giacco, Domenico
- Venue
- Comprehensive Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-04
- Volume
- 66
- Pages
- 59-66
- ISSN
- 0010-440X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2232083361
- Cited by
- 91
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 6.23
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Comprehensive Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca - Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Keywords
- loneliness, social contact, psychosis, mood disorders, interpersonal relationships, objective and subjective indicators, outpatient psychiatric care, social support interventions
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Humans, Interpersonal Relations, London, Loneliness, Male, Middle Aged, Psychotic Disorders, Surveys and Questionnaires, Social Behavior, Social Isolation, Social Support, Mood Disorders
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
