Login Register Cart 0
Generic placeholder image

Current Aging Science

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1874-6098
ISSN (Online): 1874-6128

Back
Journal Home About Journal Editorial Board Journal Insight Current Issue Volumes/Issues
Subscribe
Commentary

Loneliness as Risk Factor for Alzheimer´s disease

Author(s): Marina Ávila-Villanueva, Jaime Gómez-Ramírez, Jesús Ávila* and Miguel A. Fernández-Blázquez*

Volume 15, Issue 3, 2022

Published on: 22 April, 2022

Page: [293 - 296] Pages: 4

DOI: 10.2174/1874609815666220304195049

Abstract

There is considerable empirical evidence that unequivocally points to loneliness as a modifiable risk factor for the development of Alzheimer's disease and other related dementias. With the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown and social distancing, there has been a renewed interest in studying this topic. The present review examines the links between loneliness and Alzheimer's disease, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms common to both conditions.

Keywords: Dementia, social behavior, Alzheimer disease, cronic stress, amygdala, hippocampus.

« Previous Next »
[1]
Baumgart M, Snyder HM, Carrillo MC, Fazio S, Kim H, Johns H. Summary of the evidence on modifiable risk factors for cognitive decline and dementia: A population-based perspective. Alzheimers Dement 2015; 11(6): 718-26.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2015.05.016 ] [PMID: 26045020]
[2]
Flicker L. Modifiable lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease. J Alzheimers Dis 2010; 20(3): 803-11.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-2010-091624 ] [PMID: 20182016]
[3]
Balouch S, Rifaat E, Chen HL, Tabet N. Social networks and loneliness in people with Alzheimer’s dementia. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2019; 34(5): 666-73.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gps.5065 ] [PMID: 30706526]
[4]
Ávila-Villanueva M, Gómez-Ramírez J, Ávila J, Fernández-Blázquez MA. Alzheimer’s disease and empathic abilities: The proposed role of the cingulate cortex. J Alzheimers Dis Rep 2021; 5(1): 345-52.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/ADR-200282 ] [PMID: 34189406]
[5]
MacRae H. Self and other: The importance of social interaction and social relationships in shaping the experience of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. J Aging Stud 2011; 25(4): 445-56.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2011.06.001]
[6]
Donovan NJ, Okereke OI, Vannini P, et al. Association of higher cortical amyloid burden with loneliness in cognitively normal older adults. JAMA Psychiatry 2016; 73(12): 1230-7.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.2657 ] [PMID: 27806159]
[7]
Wilson RS, Krueger KR, Arnold SE, et al. Loneliness and risk of Alzheimer disease. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2007; 64(2): 234-40.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.64.2.234 ] [PMID: 17283291]
[8]
Olazarán J, Valentí M, Frades B, et al. The Vallecas Project: A cohort to identify early markers and mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. Front Aging Neurosci 2015; 7: 181.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2015.00181 ] [PMID: 26483681]
[9]
Deary IJ, Gow AJ, Taylor MD, et al. The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936: A study to examine influences on cognitive ageing from age 11 to age 70 and beyond. BMC Geriatr 2007; 7(1): 28.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2318-7-28 ] [PMID: 18053258]
[10]
Akhter-Khan SC, Tao Q, Ang TFA, et al. Associations of loneliness with risk of Alzheimer’s disease dementia in the Framingham Heart Study. Alzheimers Dement 2021; 17(10): 1619-27.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/alz.12327 ] [PMID: 33760348]
[11]
Dahlberg L. Loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic. Aging Ment Health 2021; 25(7): 1161-4.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2021.1875195 ] [PMID: 33491474]
[12]
Ausín B, González-Sanguino C, Castellanos MÁ, Muñoz M. Gender-related differences in the psychological impact of confinement as a consequence of COVID-19 in Spain. J Gend Stud 2021; 30(1): 29-38.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0958923620201799768]
[13]
Bu F, Steptoe A, Fancourt D. Who is lonely in lockdown? Cross-cohort analyses of predictors of loneliness before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public Health 2020; 186: 31-4.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.06.036 ] [PMID: 32768621]
[14]
Elran-Barak R, Mozeikov M. One month into the reinforcement of social distancing due to the covid-19 outbreak: Subjective health, health behaviors, and loneliness among people with chronic medical conditions. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020; 17(15): 1-16.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17155403 ] [PMID: 32727103]
[15]
Kotwal AA, Holt-Lunstad J, Newmark RL, et al. Social isolation and loneliness among Sanfrancisco bay area older adults during the COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders. J Am Geriatr Soc 2021; 69(1): 20-9.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16865 ] [PMID: 32965024]
[16]
van Tilburg TG, Steinmetz S, Stolte E, van der Roest H, de Vries DH. Loneliness and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A study among dutch older adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2021; 76(7): e249-55.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbaa111 ] [PMID: 32756931]
[17]
Taquet M, Luciano S, Geddes JR, Harrison PJ. Bidirectional associations between COVID-19 and psychiatric disorder: Retrospective cohort studies of 62 354 COVID-19 cases in the USA. Lancet Psychiatry 2021; 8(2): 130-40.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30462-4 ] [PMID: 33181098]
[18]
Sutin AR, Stephan Y, Luchetti M, Terracciano A. Loneliness and risk of dementia. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2020; 75(7): 1414-22.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gby112 ] [PMID: 30365023]
[19]
Hampel H, Lista S, Khachaturian ZS. Development of biomarkers to chart all Alzheimer’s disease stages: The royal road to cutting the therapeutic Gordian Knot. Alzheimers Dement 2012; 8(4): 312-36.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2012.05.2116 ] [PMID: 22748938]
[20]
Mahalakshmi AM, Ray B, Tuladhar S, et al. Does COVID-19 contribute to development of neurological disease? Immun Inflamm Dis 2021; 9(1): 48-58.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/iid3.387 ] [PMID: 33332737]
[21]
Tsapanou A, Papatriantafyllou JD, Yiannopoulou K, et al. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on people with mild cognitive impairment/dementia and on their caregivers. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2021; 36(4): 583-7.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gps.5457 ] [PMID: 33166418]
[22]
Rahman MA, Islam K, Rahman S, Alamin M. Neurobiochemical cross-talk between COVID-19 and Alzheimer’s Disease. Mol Neurobiol 2021; 58(3): 1017-23.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12035-020-02177-w ] [PMID: 33078369]
[23]
Cacioppo S, Capitanio JP, Cacioppo JT. Toward a neurology of loneliness. Psychol Bull 2014; 140(6): 1464-504.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037618 ] [PMID: 25222636]
[24]
d’Oleire Uquillas F, Jacobs HIL, Biddle KD, et al. Regional tau pathology and loneliness in cognitively normal older adults. Transl Psychiatry 2018; 8(1): 282.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41398-018-0345-x ] [PMID: 30563962]
[25]
Braak H, Braak E. Neuropathological stageing of Alzheimer-related changes. Acta Neuropathol 1991; 82(4): 239-59.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00308809 ] [PMID: 1759558]
[26]
Avila J, Perry G. A multilevel view of the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Neuroscience 2021; 457: 283-93.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.11.015]
[27]
Cacioppo JT, Cacioppo S, Capitanio JP, Cole SW. The neuroendocrinology of social isolation. Annu Rev Psychol 2015; 66(1): 733-67.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015240 ] [PMID: 25148851]
[28]
Moreno-Jiménez EP, Flor-García M, Terreros-Roncal J, et al. Adult hippocampal neurogenesis is abundant in neurologically healthy subjects and drops sharply in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Nat Med 2019; 25(4): 554-60.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41591-019-0375-9 ] [PMID: 30911133]
[29]
Brewster KK, Golub JS, Rutherford BR. Neural circuits and behavioral pathways linking hearing loss to affective dysregulation in older adults. Nat Aging 2021; 1(5): 422-9.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00065-z]
[30]
Tiwari SC. Loneliness: A disease? Indian J Psychiatry 2013; 55(4): 320-2.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/0019-5545.120536 ] [PMID: 24459300]
[31]
White KE, Cummings JL. Schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease: Clinical and pathophysiologic analogies. Compr Psychiatry 1996; 37(3): 188-95.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0010-440X(96)90035-8 ] [PMID: 8732586]
[32]
Zhang T, Davatzikos C. Optimally-discriminative voxel-based morphometry significantly increases the ability to detect group differences in schizophrenia, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. Neuroimage 2013; 79: 94-110.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.04.063 ] [PMID: 23631985]
[33]
de Vries PJ, Honer WG, Kemp PM, McKenna PJ. Dementia as a complication of schizophrenia. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2001; 70(5): 588-96.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.70.5.588 ] [PMID: 11309451]
[34]
Kochunov P, Zavaliangos-Petropulu A, Jahanshad N, et al. A white matter connection of schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. Schizophr Bull 2021; 47(1): 197-206.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa078 ] [PMID: 32681179]
[35]
Shankar A, Hamer M, McMunn A, Steptoe A. Social isolation and loneliness: Relationships with cognitive function during 4 years of follow-up in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Psychosom Med 2013; 75(2): 161-70.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/PSY.0b013e31827f09cd ] [PMID: 23362501]
[36]
Ávila-Villanueva M, Fernández-Blázquez MA. Subjective cognitive decline as a preclinical marker for Alzheimer’s disease: The challenge of stability over time. Front Aging Neurosci 2017; 9: 377.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2017.00377 ] [PMID: 29201004]
[37]
Fernández-Blázquez MA, Ávila-Villanueva M, Maestú F, Medina M. Specific features of subjective cognitive decline predict faster conversion to mild cognitive impairment. J Alzheimers Dis 2016; 52(1): 271-81.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/JAD-150956 ] [PMID: 27060949]
[38]
Veronese N, Galvano D, D’Antiga F, et al. Interventions for reducing loneliness: An umbrella review of intervention studies. Health Soc Care Community 2021; 29(5): e89-96.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/hsc.13248 ] [PMID: 33278311]
[39]
Campbell AJ, Cumming SR, Hughes I. Internet use by the socially fearful: Addiction or therapy? Cyberpsychol Behav 2006; 9(1): 69-81.
[http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2006.9.69 ] [PMID: 16497120]

Rights & Permissions Print Cite
Article Metrics
56
2
© 2024 Bentham Science Publishers | Privacy Policy