Seeing sadness: Comorbid effects of loneliness and depression on emotional face processing

© 2021 The Authors. Background/Objective: Loneliness and depression are highly comorbid, and both are associated with social processing deficits. However, there is a paucity of research aimed at differentiating emotional face-processing deficits that are comorbid to loneliness and depression versus those attributable to loneliness or depression only. Methods: 502 participants were recruited and screened for loneliness (UCLA Loneliness Scale) and depression (Beck Depression Inventory). Of those, seventy-seven took part in a fully crossed 2 (loneliness; low/high) * 2 (depression; low/high) factorial between-subjects design study to assess individual and comorbid effects of loneliness and depression on a computerized morphed facial emotion processing task. Results: Comorbidity was confirmed by a significant positive correlation between loneliness and depression. On the emotion processing task, loneliness was associated with an increased accuracy for sad faces and decreased accuracy for fearful faces and depression with decreased accuracy in identifying happy faces. Comorbid loneliness and depression resulted in an increased misattribution of neutral faces as sad, an effect that was also seen in those who were either only lonely or only depressed. Conclusion: This if the first study to tease out comorbid versus independent effects of loneliness and depression on social information processing. To the extent that emotional biases may act as risk factors for detrimental outcomes, our findings highlight the importance of treating both loneliness and depression

The Eyes Have It: Sex and Sexual Orientation Differences in Pupil Dilation Patterns

Recent research suggests profound sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual response. These results, however, are based on measures of genital arousal, which have potential limitations such as volunteer bias and differential measures for the sexes. The present study introduces a measure less affected by these limitations. We assessed the pupil dilation of 325 men and women of various sexual orientations to male and female erotic stimuli. Results supported hypotheses. In general, self-reported sexual orientation corresponded with pupil dilation to men and women. Among men, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in bisexual-identified men. In contrast, among women, substantial dilation to both sexes was most common in heterosexual-identified women. Possible reasons for these differences are discussed. Because the measure of pupil dilation is less invasive than previous measures of sexual response, it allows for studying diverse age and cultural populations, usually not included in sexuality research

"They're Really PD Today": An Exploration of Mental Health Nursing Students' Perceptions of Developing a Therapeutic Relationship With Patients With a Diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder

The therapeutic relationship is of particular importance when working with patients with antisocial personality disorder, but despite this, there is a paucity of literature exploring student nurses’ perceptions of developing a therapeutic relationship with such patients. Hence, this qualitative study explored the perceptions of second-year mental health nursing students of developing a therapeutic relationship with this patient group. Student nurses from a University in the Northwest of England participated in two focus groups, to compare the perceptions of a group of student nurses who had experience in secure settings (forensic hospital) with those who had not. Four key themes emerged: diagnosis, safety, engagement, and finally environmental influences. Both groups commented on looking beyond the diagnosis and seeing the person. The student nurses cited other staff in their clinical placement areas as hugely influential in terms of the development of their perceptions of patients with antisocial personality disorder and how to relate to them

Managing loneliness: a qualitative study of older people’s views

© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an accepted manuscript of the article published at https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2020.1729337Engaging with older people who self-identify as lonely may help professionals in mental health and other services understand how they deal with loneliness. The evidence-base for effective interventions to address loneliness is inconclusive. This study aimed to explore how community-dwelling lonely older people in England manage their experiences of loneliness. Twenty eight community-dwelling older people identifying as lonely, based on responses to two loneliness measures (self-report and a standardised instrument), participated in in-depth interviews between 2013 and 2014. Fifteen lived alone. Thematic analysis of transcribed interviews was conducted by a multidisciplinary team including older people.Participants drew on a range of strategies to ameliorate their distress which had been developed over their lives and shaped according to individual coping styles and contexts. Strategies included physical engagement with the world beyond their home, using technologies, planning, and engagement with purpose in an ‘outside world’, and acceptance, endurance, revealing and hiding, positive attitude and motivation, and distraction within an ‘inside world’. Strategies of interests and hobbies, comparative thinking, religion and spirituality and use of alcohol straddled both the inside and outside worlds. Participants conveyed a personal responsibility for managing feelings of loneliness rather than relying on others. This study includes the experiences of those living with loneliness whilst also living with other people. When developing policy and practice responses to loneliness it is important to listen attentively to the views of those who may not be engaging with services designed for ‘the lonely’ and to consider their own strategies for managing it.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Childhood loneliness as a predictor of adolescent depressive symptoms: an 8-year longitudinal study

Childhood loneliness is characterised by children’s perceived dissatisfaction with aspects of their social relationships. This 8-year prospective study investigates whether loneliness in childhood predicts depressive symptoms in adolescence, controlling for early childhood indicators of emotional problems and a sociometric measure of peer social preference. 296 children were tested in the infant years of primary school (T1 5 years of age), in the upper primary school (T2 9 years of age) and in secondary school (T3 13 years of age). At T1, children completed the loneliness assessment and sociometric interview. Their teachers completed externalisation and internalisation rating scales for each child. At T2, children completed a loneliness assessment, a measure of depressive symptoms, and the sociometric interview. At T3, children completed the depressive symptom assessment. An SEM analysis showed that depressive symptoms in early adolescence (age 13) were predicted by reports of depressive symptoms at age 8, which were themselves predicted by internalisation in the infant school (5 years). The interactive effect of loneliness at 5 and 9, indicative of prolonged loneliness in childhood, also predicted depressive symptoms at age 13. Parent and peer-related loneliness at age 5 and 9, peer acceptance variables, and duration of parent loneliness did not predict depression. Our results suggest that enduring peer-related loneliness during childhood constitutes an interpersonal stressor that predisposes children to adolescent depressive symptoms. Possible mediators are discussed

Fairy Tales: Attraction and Stereotypes in Same-Gender Relationships

We examine the process of romantic attraction in same-gender relationships using open and closed-ended questionnaire data from a sample of 120 men and women in Northern California. Agreeableness (e.g., kind, supportive) and Extraversion (e.g., fun, sense of humor) are the two most prominent bases of attraction, followed by Physical Attractiveness (e.g., appearance, sexy). The least important attractors represent traits associated with material success (e.g., financially secure, nice house). We also find evidence of seemingly contradictory attraction processes documented previously in heterosexual romantic relationships, in which individuals become disillusioned with the qualities in a partner that were initially appealing. Our findings challenge common stereotypes of same-gender relationships. The results document broad similarities between same-gender and cross-gender couples in attraction

Does owning a pet protect older people against loneliness?

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Pet ownership is thought to make a positive contribution to health, health behaviours and the general well-being of older people. More specifically pet ownership is often proposed as a solution to the problem of loneliness in later life and specific 'pet based' interventions have been developed to combat loneliness. However the evidence to support this relationship is slim and it is assumed that pet ownership is a protection against loneliness rather than a response to loneliness. The aim of this paper is to examine the association between pet ownership and loneliness by exploring if pet ownership is a response to, or protection against, loneliness using Waves 0-5 from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)

To support and not to cure: general practitioner management of loneliness

Loneliness is associated with numerous detrimental effects on physical health, mental health, cognition and lifestyle. Older adults are one of the groups at highest risk of loneliness, and indeed about 46% of older adults in England feel lonely. Those experiencing loneliness visit their general practitioner (GP) more frequently than those who are not, which has the capacity to put a strain on GPs and primary care waiting lists and costs. This study's aim was to explore GPs' views and experiences of loneliness within their older adult patients, and to understand GPs' awareness and feelings of agency within this. Nineteen UK GPs were recruited using purposive sampling and snowballing techniques. Individual semi‐structured interviews were conducted either in person or over the telephone. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four overarching themes were identified from the data: Whose responsibility is it anyway?, Pandora's box of shame; Keeping distance; and Community responsibility. Themes emphasise that GPs tend to hold a medicalised and individualistic view of loneliness. This intensifies stigma which in turn creates barriers to raising the topic. GPs felt powerless in their ability to fix the ‘problem’ and tended to believe that the solution had to lie in the community, the individual or in social care rather than in primary care. The findings are discussed in the context of literature on GP management of other social problems which give rise to similar issues concerning the restrictions of the medical model and the need for joined‐up approaches in which the GP is one part of a wider social support structure. It is suggested that it might be useful for training and support for GPs to address management of social problems jointly rather than training specific to loneliness which GPs tend to see as peripheral to their core remit

Older Norwegians' understanding of loneliness

This interpretive study explored older people's understanding of loneliness and what they considered appropriate and effective ways of dealing with it. Thirty elderly people were interviewed in-depth; 12 described themselves as “lonely” and 18 as “not lonely.” We found a striking difference in the way “lonely” and “not lonely” people talked about loneliness. The “not lonely” participants described loneliness as painful, caused by the person's negative way of behaving and a state they should pull themselves out of. The “lonely” participants also described loneliness as painful, and gave more detailed descriptions of loneliness as disconnection from others, from their former home and from today's society. The “lonely” participants were more reserved and subdued in trying to explain loneliness, attributing it partly to themselves, but mostly to the lack of social contact with important others. Some felt able to handle their loneliness, while others felt unable to cope. This study underlines the importance of subjective experiences in trying to understand a phenomenon like loneliness and of developing support for lonely older people unable to cope on their own