alzheimer’s disease (AD)
The subjective view of the person feeling lonely and socially isolated predicted the development and onset of AD (Arehart-Treichel, 2007).
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has symptoms of depression and cognitive impairment. Research indicates that people who are lonely are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
Reports implicate how loneliness has damaging effects on physical and mental health with neurological and behavioral consequences. Social isolation puts one in a state of “hypervigilance of social threats” increasing negative affect on noradrenergic nervous system which Banich and Compton (2011) explain as influencing arousal and attention.
Other studies suggest increases of systolic blood pressure (SBP) were due to high levels of loneliness. How a person feels subjectively predicts the physiological processes that cannot be determined by objective isolation (Cacioppo, and Cacioppo, 2014).
Clinical studies of animals socially isolated showed less neuronal activity in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus compared to animals that were not. Further noted in the study was “loneliness predicted a decline in cognition, though a decline in cognition did not predict an increase in loneliness” (Arehart-Treichel, 2007).
REFERENCES
Banich, M. T., & Compton, R. J. (2011). Cognitive neuroscience (3rd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
http://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=110804&RelatedNewsArticles=true