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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Five Ways to Wellbeing: evidence-based public mental health for the UK population

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The Five Ways to Wellbeing is a set of evidence-based public mental health messages aimed at improving the mental health and wellbeing of the whole population. They were developed by the New Economics Foundation as the result of a commission by Foresight, the UK government‟s futures think-tank, as part of the Foresight Project on Mental [read the full story…]

Top 25 global mental health research priorities published in Nature journal

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An international group of more than 400 mental health experts have identified 25 top research priorities which promise to improve the lives of people with mental, neurological, and substance-use disorders. The Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health Initiative was organised by the US National Institutes of Health and the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases. Experts [read the full story…]

Fewer mental health hospital beds but more people detained: 20 year ecological analysis in England

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This ecological analysis published in the BMJ examines the rise in the rate of involuntary admissions for mental illness in England that has occurred as community alternatives to hospital admission have been introduced. The study used available data on provision of beds for people with mental illness in the NHS from Hospital Activity Statistics and involuntary [read the full story…]

UK physical activity guidelines published by the Department of Health

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Physical activity has an important role to play in promoting mental health and well-being by preventing mental health problems and improving the quality of life of those experiencing mental health problems and illnesses. For example, evidence shows that physical activity can reduce the risk of depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s. It also shows that physical activity [read the full story…]

Self-guided psychological treatment has a small but significant impact on depression

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Self-guided psychological treatment is where a patient works through a programme of treatment without the aid of a therapist or coach.  There are now many Internet-based treatments for depression and anxiety and there have been a number of good quality trials published during the last few years on self-guided psychological treatments for depression. There have [read the full story…]

Motivational interviewing is better than doing nothing for people with drug and alcohol problems

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More than 76 million people worldwide have alcohol problems, and another 15 million have drug problems. Motivational interviewing (MI) is a psychological treatment that aims to help people cut down or stop using drugs and alcohol. The drug abuser and counsellor typically meet between one and four times for about one hour each time. The [read the full story…]

Mortality rates in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified: new meta-analysis

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The rates of morbidity and mortality in eating disorders are thought to be high, but the exact rates were not known before this meta analysis published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. The authors set out to systematically compile and analyze the mortality rates in individuals with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and eating disorder not otherwise [read the full story…]

Psychoeducation seems to reduce relapse, readmission and encourage medication compliance for people with schizophrenia

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Schizophrenia can be a severe and chronic illness characterised by lack of insight and poor compliance with treatment. Psychoeducational approaches have been developed to increase patients’ knowledge of, and insight into, their illness and its treatment. It is supposed that this increased knowledge and insight will enable people with schizophrenia to cope in a more [read the full story…]

Depot antipsychotic drugs may reduce relapse in patients with schizophrenia

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Many people with schizophrenia struggle to adhere to their oral antipsychotic drug regimen.  It is thought that depot antipsychotic drugs (a special preparation of the medication, which is given by injection and is slowly released into the body over a number of weeks) may reduce relapse rates by improving adherence. This systematic review searched for randomised controlled [read the full story…]

New ‘Timid to Tiger’ parenting-based group intervention for young anxious children shows promise

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This randomised controlled trial published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry looks at the effectiveness of a new cognitive-behavioural parenting-based approach for treating anxiety in young children. Timid to Tiger is an entirely parenting-based approach to managing anxiety in children aged nine years or below. It is based on evidence that anxious children benefit [read the full story…]