CONFERENCE REPORTER
“The loneliness epidemic shouldn’t be new,” shared Badr Ratnakaran, MBBS.
In 2017, Vivek Murthy, the then-US Surgeon Normal, declared loneliness a public well being “epidemic.” In 2023, the World Well being Group acknowledged it as a worldwide well being drawback.
Ratnakaran, sat down with Psychiatric Instances to debate the loneliness epidemic on the 2025 American Psychiatric Affiliation Annual Assembly.
Loneliness exacerbates a number of ranges of points comparable to rising stress; exacerbating melancholy and anxiousness; and elevating danger of diabetes, blood stress issues, strokes, coronary heart assaults. Total, it decreases high quality of life.
“We as psychiatrists do not usually deal with this as an issue,” mentioned Ratnakaran. “It’s a huge consider individuals’s illnesses and lives. Addressing it would assist a number of the standard of life outcomes and well being outcomes. It is rather crucial, not solely as psychiatrists, but additionally as physicians.”
Dr Ratnakaran is an assistant professor and geriatric psychiatrist at Carilion Clinic-Virginia Tech Carilion College of Drugs. He additionally serves because the medical director of CONNECT, 24-hour emergency analysis and referral service of Carilion Clinic.
