It's official: A single life can drive you crazy

People who live alone in middle age face nearly double the risk of developing cognitive problems in later life compared with married or cohabiting counterparts, according to a new study.

Researchers interviewed 2,000 people selected randomly in the Kuopio and Joensuu regions of eastern Finland in the 1970s and 80s, when their average age was 50.4 years.

A total of 1,409 of the volunteers were then re-examined in 1998 for cognitive impairment, when their ages ranged from 65-79.