Loneliness in youth during COVID-19: A narrative review.

For this narrative review, only a couple dozen publications could be found on loneliness of youth during COVID-19. They are limited to research on prevalence, effects and risk factors. The prevalence has widely ranged from 8%-68% across different countries. Loneliness has increased from pre- COVID to COVID and especially across lockdowns. Increases in loneliness- related depression and anxiety have ranged from 15-25% which has been comorbid with excessive use of social media, physical inactivity, sleep disturbances and inflammation markers including increased C-reactive protein and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios. Only a few buffers have been noted for the stressful effects of loneliness including peer andparent relationships, meditation and exercise. Despite methodological limitations including that causality cannot be determined from cross-sectional data, this research highlights theimportance of further research on therelatively unknown underlying mechanisms for loneliness aswell as effective interventions for reducing loneliness in youth.