Andre Tomlin

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André Tomlin is an Information Scientist with 20 years experience working in evidence-based healthcare. He's worked in the NHS, for Oxford University and since 2002 as Managing Director of Minervation Ltd, a consultancy company who do clever digital stuff for charities, universities and the public sector. Most recently André has been the driving force behind the Mental Elf and the National Elf Service; an innovative digital platform that helps professionals keep up to date with simple, clear and engaging summaries of evidence-based research. André is a Trustee at the Centre for Mental Health and an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London Division of Psychiatry. He lives in Bristol, surrounded by dogs, elflings and lots of woodland!

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More evidence to suggest that central nervous stimulants are safe in the short-term for children and young people with ADHD

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Back in February, I blogged about a cohort study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that ADHD drugs are not linked with an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events. The last few years has seen heated debate about the use of central nervous stimulants in children and young people. The lack [read the full story…]

Treating depression and anxiety with the benzodiazepine alprazolam: new Cochrane review recommends caution

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Antidepressants and psychotherapies are the mainstay for treating depression, but another option is the benzodiazepine drug alprazolam, which is recommended for treating depression when anxiety is also involved. Some doctors prescribe a short course of benzodiazepines to help depressed and anxious patients, but this is not supported by NICE guidance. High-potency tranquillisers like alprazolam are [read the full story…]

New NHS survey points to decline in drug use amongst 11-15 years olds

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The NHS Information Centre have published their annual survey of secondary school pupils in England in years 7 to 11 (mostly aged 11 to 15). 6,519 pupils in 219 schools completed questionnaires in the autumn term of 2011. The survey report presents information on the percentage of pupils who have ever smoked, tried alcohol or [read the full story…]

The Mental Elf iPhone app is now available!

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iPhone users can now get daily Mental Elf updates on their phone. Visit the Apple Store now to download the app. It’s available at a special introductory price of £0.69 for the next few weeks, so get it now! iPhone app features Up to the minute alerts of the latest Mental Elf blogs, so you get to [read the full story…]

Risk assessment tools do not accurately predict the risk of repeat offending, according to new systematic review

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Risk assessment tools are widely used in psychiatric hospitals and criminal justice systems to help predict violent behaviour and inform sentencing and release decisions. Yet their predictive accuracy remains uncertain and expert opinion is divided, according to a new systematic review published in the BMJ. An international team of researchers led by Seena Fazel from [read the full story…]

New NICE local government public health briefings on workplace health, tobacco and physical activity

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Another week, another new type of publication from NICE. The local government public health briefings are aimed at local authorities and their partner organisations in the health and voluntary sectors, in particular those involved with health and wellbeing boards. Three briefings have been launched today on: Tobacco Physical activity Workplace health These briefings will be relevant [read the full story…]

Department of Health publishes national framework to improve mental health and well-being

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The government has published the mental health implementation framework, which sets out what organisations can do to make the 6 high-level objectives of the mental health strategy No Health without Mental Health a reality. The 6 objectives of the strategy are that: More people will have good mental health More people with mental health problems [read the full story…]

Can online fantasy games help young people overcome depression?

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Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy is a popular topic for research at the moment. We’ve seen a number of systematic reviews and large scale trials published over recent years, but the vast majority focus on adults with depression, so it’s hard to know how applicable the results are to adolescents. Of course, most young people are [read the full story…]

Social skills groups may help improve social competence for children and adolescents with autism

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People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often struggle to interact socially in the same way as everyone else. Recognising emotions and communicating can be very difficult for them. One approach that has grown in popularity is social skills groups, which aim to improve social competence, communication skills and quality of life for people with ASD. [read the full story…]

Citalopram outperforms all other antidepressants except escitalopram for acute phase depression, according to new review

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Citalopram (brand names: Cipramil and Celexa) is an antidepressant drug in the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class. It was one of the first SSRIs to come onto the market over 20 years ago and is available as tablets and as oral drops that are taken in a juice drink. There are lots of antidepressants [read the full story…]