Andre Tomlin

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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Comparative risks of antipsychotics amongst nursing home residents with dementia

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Mar 9 2012

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Andre Tomlin

Regular readers may recall previous blogs where I have written about the dangers associated with antipsychotic drugs in elderly patients. Many of you have responded simply and emotionally on Twitter by saying: “Stop prescribing these drugs!” Others have recognised that the issue is far from clear cut as a fair proportion of patients do have [read the full story…]

Stress is now the biggest cause of long-term sickness absence in the UK, according to a CIPD survey

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Mar 8 2012

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Andre Tomlin

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by some of the recent coverage in the press and on TV about mental illness at work. TV adverts have highlighted the difference individuals can make by talking openly about mental health in the workplace and there are a number of destigmatising campaigns underway by [read the full story…]

Well conducted studies are urgently needed to assess the adverse effects of antipsychotics in children and young people

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Mar 7 2012

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Andre Tomlin

There is a great deal of debate about prescribing antipsychotics to children and young people. Prescription rates of these drugs has risen sharply over the last few years, but there remains only limited evidence about the safety and efficacy of these medicines. The second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) have become more popular and this is partly due [read the full story…]

Group CBT is an effective treatment for depression, but the evidence remains quite weak

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Mar 6 2012

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Andre Tomlin

The NICE depression guidance recommends a stepped-care model for treating mild to moderate depression (see figure 11 below). A considerable amount of funding has gone towards the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies initiative in England, but despite this the availability of individual therapy remains limited and relatively few people with depression receive the kind of [read the full story…]

Group art therapy does no better than standard care at improving symptoms for people with schizophrenia

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Mar 5 2012

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Andre Tomlin

People with schizophrenia experience a wide range of symptoms, which are broadly categorised into ‘positive’ symptoms (e.g. hallucinations and delusions) and ‘negative’ symptoms (e.g. lethargy, lack of motivation and poor attention). Evidence shows that positive symptoms can be well managed with antipsychotic drugs, which also reduce the chances of relapse, but these medications can have [read the full story…]

Online CBT is an effective treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome in adolescents, according to small RCT

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Mar 2 2012

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Andre Tomlin

Existing trials have shown that cognitive behavioural therapy is a promising treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome. The availability of CBT is patchy, so there is an increasing body of research investigating whether internet-based treatment is a viable alternative. A new small randomised controlled trial conducted by researchers from the Netherlands has been published in the [read the full story…]

Free resources from Rethink to help mental health professionals address the physical health needs of their patients

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Mar 1 2012

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Andre Tomlin

The charity Rethink Mental Illness has launched a comprehensive range of new tools to help mental health professionals address the physical health needs of the people they work with. The tools have been developed as part of the 20 Years Too Soon campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the fact that people affected by [read the full story…]

Patient experience in NHS services: new quality standard and guidance from NICE

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Feb 29 2012

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Andre Tomlin

NICE have released two new publications that aim to ensure a good experience of care for people who use adult NHS services. The first is a quality standard that stresses the importance of patients being given the opportunity to discuss their health beliefs, concerns and preferences in order to individualise their care. It also states [read the full story…]

Illegal drug treatment and recovery services in England: new report from the NTA

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Feb 28 2012

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Andre Tomlin

The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse has produced a new publication which gives an overview of drug treatment and recovery services in England. ‘Drug treatment in England: The road to recovery’ complements the recently released ‘Why Invest?’ presentation, which shows how investing in local drug treatment and recovery services benefits individuals, strengthens families and [read the full story…]

Preventing and managing violence in mental health and criminal justice populations: results of a new systematic review

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Feb 28 2012

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Andre Tomlin

The public perception of mental health and violent behaviour has often been influenced by poor media coverage and a focus on specific crimes committed by people with psychosis. There’s a nice summary of work in this area on the Mind website, which includes a number of enlightening stats, including this one: The fear of random [read the full story…]

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