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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Antidepressants are effective in treating depression in palliative care

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It can be hard to detect and treat depression when it occurs in palliative care because it often presents amongst a multitude of other symptoms. There are obviously many systematic reviews that assess the use of antidepressants as a treatment for various life threatening illnesses, but no previous study has synthesized the evidence in palliative [read the full story…]

Improving the mental health of Londoners

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London Health Programmes have published a series of documents from their Models of Care project that will be of particular interest to commissioners. The mental health case for change explores the reasons behind why mental health services in London need to change and the evidence to support the recommendations. The mental health models of care [read the full story…]

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Psychological treatments seem to help depressed inpatients, but more research is needed

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This meta-analysis looks to provide reliable evidence about the effectiveness of psychological treatment for depressed inpatients. The authors carried out a systematic search and found 12 studies with a total of 570 respondents. The included studies had sufficient statistical power to detect small effect sizes, there was no significant heterogeneity, there was no indication for significant publication [read the full story…]

Low incomes families finding it difficult to make ends meet, according to new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation

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This report presents the 2011 update of the Minimum Income Standard (MIS), originally published in 2008. The standard is based on research into the items that members of the public, informed where relevant by expert knowledge, think should be covered by a household budget in order to achieve a minimum socially acceptable standard of living. [read the full story…]

Will the Family Nurse Partnership model work in the UK?

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Family Nurse Partnership is a preventive programme for vulnerable first time young mothers. It offers intensive and structured home visiting, delivered by specially trained nurses, from early pregnancy until the child is two. The Family Nurse Partnership began in England in 2007 with initial testing in 10 sites. There are now over 50 sites across [read the full story…]

New study finds no evidence that crisis resolution and home treatment teams have any impact on psychiatric admissions

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door knocker

Crisis resolution and home treatment (CRHT) teams were introduced in England throughout 2000 and 2001 and a number of studies have been published since then which have shown that they are associated with reductions in inpatient admissions. This new study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry used data from a previous national study for 229 [read the full story…]

Benzodiazepines associated with an increase in falls and fractures in older adults

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This rapid response report from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health set out to answer four questions: 1. What is the evidence on the safety of using benzodiazepines in older adults to manage disruptive behaviour or treat anxiety? 2. What is the effectiveness of benzodiazepines compared with that of antidepressants in older [read the full story…]

SSRI antidepressants increase the risk of major abnormalities in pregnancy

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This huge review suggests that there are several effective treatment choices for generalised anxiety disorder across classes of medication.

A large observational study from Finland has found that women who drink alcohol and take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressives (SSRI) during the first trimester of pregnancy significantly increase their risk for foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.  The study also found an increase in risk for some major congenital malformations associated with the use of SSRIs during the first [read the full story…]

Child sexual abuse may be important cause of schizophrenia

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Childhood sexual abuse is a strong predictor of schizophrenia in later life, a leading psychiatrist has told the International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 2011. It is a contributing cause of 17 per cent of cases of psychotic illness including schizophrenia, Professor Paul Bebbington, Head of the Department of Mental Health Sciences at [read the full story…]

GPs find it difficult to identify mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia, and are poor at recording diagnoses

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This meta-analysis looked at the ability of general practitioners (GPs) to recognize a spectrum of cognitive impairment from mild cognitive impairment to severe dementia in routine practice using their own clinical judgment. The authors found 15 studies reporting on dementia, seven studies that examined recognition of broadly defined cognitive impairment, and eight regarding mild cognitive impairment. By [read the full story…]