Surgeon General Declares Loneliness To Be Next Big Public Health Threat

Warning that loneliness poses a similar level of danger to physical and mental health as smoking or obesity, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory Tuesday stressing the importance of building back the "social fabric" of the U.S. Nearly half the nation was estimated to be lonely even before the isolation of the pandemic.

AP: Loneliness Poses Risks As Deadly As Smoking: Surgeon General

Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Dr. Vivek Murthy said in an 81-page report from his office. “We now know that loneliness is a common feeling that many people experience. It’s like hunger or thirst. It’s a feeling the body sends us when something we need for survival is missing,” Murthy told The Associated Press in an interview. “Millions of people in America are struggling in the shadows, and that’s not right. That’s why I issued this advisory to pull back the curtain on a struggle that too many people are experiencing.” (Seitz, 5/2)

ABC News: US Surgeon General Calls For Action Regarding The Ongoing 'Epidemic Of Loneliness And Isolation'

The report cites recent research showing that approximately half of U.S. adults experienced loneliness daily, even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. ... According to the report, insufficient social connection has also been linked to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, anxiety, depression and dementia. Additionally, loneliness was reported among the primary motivations for self-harm, according to a systematic review cited in the advisory. (Egan, 5/2)

Surgeon General's Guest Essay In The New York Times: We Have Become a Lonely Nation. It’s Time to Fix That.

Also —

The New York Times: Emergency Room Visits Have Risen Sharply For Young People In Mental Distress, Study Finds

Mental health-related visits to emergency rooms by children, teenagers and young adults soared from 2011 to 2020, according to a report published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The sharpest increase was for suicide-related visits, which rose fivefold. The findings indicated an “urgent” need for expanded crisis services, according to the team of researchers and physicians who published the report. (Richtel, 5/1)

CIDRAP: More Depression, Especially In Girls, Seen In Kids During Pandemic

A longitudinal meta-analysis today in JAMA Pediatrics surveyed studies published in 12 countries about the rates of anxiety and depression among adolescents and children before and after the pandemic and found that rates of depression increased, especially among female youth in high-income counties. (Soucheray, 5/1)

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