“Addressing the crisis of loneliness and isolation is one of our generation’s greatest challenges,” wrote Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in The Times in April, discussing a national framework for rebuilding social connection to combat what he called an “epidemic” of loneliness. If loneliness is an epidemic, how do you treat it? This calls to mind a trip to the pharmacy to pick up a bottle of pills, but treating loneliness the same way doctors treat high cholesterol isn’t exactly the idea here. Even Dr. Cacioppo, who has dedicated her life to studying human connection, including pharmaceutical solutions for loneliness, questions the value of medicalizing it. “We need to be accountable for the well-being of our friends and teammates and others.”Declaring loneliness an epidemic first requires an understanding of what loneliness is and how it works in the brain.

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