The loneliness pandemic: Loneliness and other concomitants of depression, anxiety and their comorbidity during the COVID-19 outbreak
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Chronic loneliness is associated with depression, anxiety, and physical health outcomes at levels worse than obesity.
“Yet some people are not successful at alleviating loneliness, leading to a state of chronic loneliness that is associated with depression, anxiety, and physical health outcomes at levels worse than obesity (Palgi et al. 2020).”
From AI Companions Reduce Loneliness (2024) · cites this paper as Palgi et al. 2020
The Discussion reports that loneliness during COVID-19 social distancing was a main risk factor for depression, anxiety, and their comorbidity; the Introduction also links loneliness broadly to physical and mental consequences. The paper does not establish that loneliness was chronic, examine a failure to alleviate it, or compare its physical-health effects with obesity (pages not provided). (LLM, conf=0.89)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredHigher levels of loneliness were reported as strongly associated with greater depression and suicidal ideation.
“higher levels of loneliness were reported as strongly associated with greater depression and suicidal ideation [72, 73].”
From Psychological correlates of perceived loneliness in college students before and during the COVID-19 stay-at-home period: a longitudinal study (2023) · cites this paper as [72]
The Results report a positive correlation between loneliness and depression scores (PHQ-9), and the Discussion calls loneliness a main risk factor for depression. The paper does not report an association between loneliness and suicidal ideation; searches for suicidal ideation, suicide, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm found no such result. (LLM, conf=0.88)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredRecent studies found that loneliness strongly predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 lockdowns.
“For example, recent studies found that loneliness strongly predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19-related lockdown measures (Palgi et al., 2020; González-Sanguino et al., 2020).”
From Lockdown, quarantine measures, and social distancing: Associations with depression, anxiety and distress at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic among adults from Germany (2020) · cites this paper as Palgi et al., 2020
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- Authors
- Palgi, Y., Shrira, A., Ring, L., Bodner, E., Avidor, S., Bergman, Y., Cohen-Fridel, S., Keisari, S., & Hoffman, Y.
- Affiliations
- University of Haifa (IL)
- Bar-Ilan University (IL)
- Ruppin Academic Center (IL)
- Ashkelon Academic College (IL)
- Corresponding author
- Palgi, Yuval
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-10
- Volume
- 275
- Pages
- 109-111
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7330569
- OpenAlex
- W3039187198
- Cited by
- 547
- References
- 13
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 99 · 2022: 157 · 2021: 156 · 2020: 18
- FWCI
- 40.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Keywords
- loneliness, depression, anxiety, comorbidities, COVID-19 pandemic, risk factors, older adults, resilience, mental illness
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