The Medicalization of Loneliness: Addressing Social Ills through Healthcare

Amidst reports on social isolation and loneliness's (SIL) link to poor health and mortality, the former U.S. Surgeon General and others declared SIL a public health priority and encouraged healthcare professionals to act. The medicalization of SIL differs from previous cases because it focuses on a social ill instead of a supposed disease, reflecting concurrent efforts by U.S. government and healthcare organizations to address social determinants of health through healthcare. Drawing on trends in journalistic, medical, and academic publications, content analysis of written materials, and interviews with professionals working on SIL, I examine how researchers, medical professionals, interest groups, government, and healthcare organizations medicalized SIL after 2010. I find that these groups' roles complicate previous narratives of medical imperialism, consumer advocacy, and pharmaceutical greed in medicalization. My findings also shed light on how the medicalization of social ills is made possible by the perceived legitimacy of physical health and the "logical leap" made from the knowledge that a condition affects health to the assumption that it should be addressed through healthcare. Finally, I observed ambivalence about medicalizing SIL, and signs of demedicalization. In my conclusion, I discuss the implications of the medicalization of SIL and social ills more broadly.