Study of 633,000 people links loneliness to suicidal thoughts

MedicalXpress | Apr 07, 2026

Loneliness plays an important role in the development of suicidal ideation, thoughts of ending one's life, which precedes nearly every suicidal death, according to a study by researchers at Vanderbilt Health. Their findings, published March 4 in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggest that reducing loneliness could "arrest some of the progression from anxiety and depressive symptoms toward suicidal ideation," and thus help prevent suicide, which claims more than 48,000 lives in the United States every year.