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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New report on antidepressants for acute depression from the World Psychiatric Association

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An international group of eminent clinicians have produced an executive report for the World Psychiatric Association, which looks at how well antidepressants work in the acute treatment of depression. The study is described as a ‘scholarly narrative review’ and the authors have considered guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomised controlled trials from a very wide [read the full story…]

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Liaison psychiatry teams in general hospitals can achieve major cost savings to the NHS, finds new report

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Liaison psychiatry teams in general hospitals can cut costs to the NHS by reducing how many people need beds and how long they stay, according to a report published yesterday by Centre for Mental Health with the NHS Confederation’s Mental Health Network and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and funded by [read the full story…]

Hospital admission and treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa: guidelines and recommendations

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This Canadian rapid response report will be of interest to anyone looking for a general introduction to the high level evidence relating to hospital admission and the treatment of patients with anorexia nervosa. The authors found 1 meta-analysis, 2 systematic reviews and 3 guidelines, but no health technology assessments. They summarised their findings as follows: [read the full story…]

Cognitive reframing may help reduce anxiety, depression and stress in carers of people with dementia

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Cognitive reframing is a technique used to reduce unrealistic or irrational thoughts and think in a more constructive way instead. It’s used as part of cognitive behavioural therapy. Carers of people with dementia sometimes respond inappropriately to the behaviour of the person with dementia. The stress and pressure of caring for their loved one may [read the full story…]

Oral health advice for people with serious mental illness

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The aim of this systematic review from the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group was to assess the effectiveness of oral health advice in reducing morbidity, mortality and preserving the quality of life in people with serious mental illness. A number of studies have found links between mental health problems and poor oral health and we have highlighted [read the full story…]

The relationship between medically unexplained symptoms and insecure attachment

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Helping someone with a successful benefits appeal, or into secure housing or out of a violent relationship might be our most effective therapeutic intervention.

Medically unexplained symptoms are physical symptoms that have no currently known physical pathological cause. They are common (accounting for as many as 1 in 5 of new primary care consultations) and can impair function and cause significant distress to patients. This longitudinal cohort study conducted by researchers from London set out to understand these presentations [read the full story…]

The evidence remains weak for the long-term effectiveness of counselling in primary care

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General practices in the UK sometimes offer counselling to people with mental health or psychosocial problems. This is an alternative to standard GP care or the conventional treatments such as cognitive behaviour therapy or antidepressants. However, recent guidelines have not been able to recommend the use of counselling because the evidence-base remains weak in comparison [read the full story…]

Absolute risk of suicide, data from major new Danish cohort study

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People with an interest in the absolute risk of suicide, and how suicide relates to other mental health conditions, will want to read more about this new Danish cohort study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. This prospective study involved 176,347 people who were followed up for as long as 36 years from the [read the full story…]

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Psychiatrists need to carry out more physical health checks for metabolic complications, says systematic review

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A new systematic review conducted by a research team from Leicester suggests that psychiatrists are failing to carry out physical health checks for metabolic complications common in patients with mental illness, in particular those who are prescribed antipsychotics. Many hospitals now have guidelines in place to ensure that patients on antipsychotics are monitored to check [read the full story…]

Family-based prevention and multi-component interventions may help prevent alcohol misuse in young people, say new systematic reviews

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Readers interested in preventing alcohol misuse in young people will find these two new systematic reviews from the Cochrane Library worth looking at in more detail. Both reviews have been conducted by researchers from Brookes University in Oxford, who searched for randomised controlled trials including school aged children up to 18 years old. The first [read the full story…]