The loneliness paradox

Why does it hurt so much to be lonely? And what can we do about it?

Additional Resources

Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, by John T. Cacioppo and William Patrick

A fellow GBHI Fellow, Phaedra Bell, PhD, runs an amazing project called MISCI that seeks to reduce loneliness and social isolation by pairing older adults with young people. Check it out here!

Our Experts

AIMEE KAO, MD, PHD

Aimee Kao holds the John Douglas French Foundation Endowed Professorship and is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. She is an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of age-related cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body disease, and frontotemporal lobar degeneration. In addition, Dr. Kao’s laboratory investigates the basic pathophysiological mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disorders, with a focus on how aging and disease impact lysosome function and protein homeostasis.

DEVANAND S. MANOLI, MD, PHD

Devanand S. Manoli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. His interests lie in understanding the neural basis of social attachment. Work in his lab focuses on understanding how long-term social memories are encoded and control social interactions between specific individuals. His team is additionally interested in how experience can affect attachment behaviors, and how mutations associated with neuropsychiatric illness alter the circuits mediating attachment to disrupt social behavior and relationships.

KRISTEN BERENDZEN, MD, PHD

Kristen Berendzen is a psychiatrist and research fellow in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, where she studies the genetic, molecular, and neural circuit mechanisms underlying social attachment behavior, with a focus on social cognition in aging and neurodegenerative disease. Her research uses the prairie vole, a small rodent that forms long-term pair bonds, to understand the response to social isolation stress and the neurobiological basis for loneliness.  

BRIAN LAWLOR, MD

Brian Lawlor is Conolly Norman Professor of Old Age Psychiatry and Deputy Executive Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. His research interests are in understanding how loneliness impacts on the brain health of older people and how we can improve the detection, treatment, and care of people with dementia.