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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High suicide rate in Northern Ireland linked to alcohol abuse

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‘Suicide and homicide in Northern Ireland’ is a new report from the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide by People with Mental Illness. The report shows that there are links between alcohol use and the increased suicide rate that has been seen in Northern Ireland over recent years. Suicide has been falling elsewhere in the [read the full story…]

Primary care multidisciplinary team consultations might not help deprived mothers with anxiety or depression

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Mothers living in socioeconomically deprived communities are vulnerable to anxiety and depression, but traditional medical approaches often fail to reach them. This prospective randomised controlled trial set out to compare the effectiveness of a lengthened multi-disciplinary team consultation with normal primary care in reducing anxiety and depression in mothers. Ninety four mothers were recruited from three general practices from [read the full story…]

Route map for dementia research published by the Department of Health

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The Ministerial Advisory Group on Dementia Research, chaired by Paul Burstow, M.P., Minister of State for Care Services, has been working over the last 18 months on proposals to increase the volume, quality and impact of dementia research. The Advisory Group has now completed its work and produced its final Headline Report, with a detailed [read the full story…]

Quetiapine better than risperidone for treating depression in people with schizophrenia

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Many published guidelines (including the American Psychiatric Association Clinical Practice Guidelines for schizophrenia), recommend second-generation antipsychotics for the treatment of depression in schizophrenia. This study compared a first-generation antipsychotic (perphenazine) with 4 second-generation antipsychotics (olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone) and the impact these drugs had on the symptoms of depression.  The authors used data from the Clinical [read the full story…]

New US care recommendations on the treatment of aggression in ADHD

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This care recommendation produced by Drew H. Barzman (Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center) sets out to answer the following question: Among children with ADHD and aggression, is the pharmacological treatment of ADHD, versus no pharmacological treatment of ADHD, effective in reducing aggressive behaviour? The authors searched Medline, PsychInfo, the National Guidelines [read the full story…]

Papers from the Ministerial Advisory Group on the Mental Health Strategy

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The Department of Health have published a set of papers from the first meeting of the Ministerial Advisory Group on the Mental Health Strategy, chaired by Paul Burstow, Minister of State for Care Services.  The Minister leads on overseeing the implementation of No health without mental Health: a cross-government mental health outcomes strategy for people of [read the full story…]

More evidence that using cannabis may cause earlier onset of psychosis

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This meta-analysis adds more weight to the argument that cannabis use plays a causal role in the development of psychosis in some patients. The review pooled 83 studies that reported on age at onset of psychotic illness in substance-using and non–substance-using groups. The study found that: Age at onset of psychosis for cannabis users was [read the full story…]

Young men with bipolar disorder are more likely to drop out from online psycho-education programmes

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Web-based education support for people with health problems is now widespread, but there is comparatively little research that explores the reasons why people do not complete online courses once they are enrolled. This paper presents data from a randomised controlled trial based in Australia, where 370 participants were randomly allocated to: An online bipolar education [read the full story…]

The most useful pieces of UK legislation for mental health practitioners

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Here is a website to bookmark if you have any interest in mental health law and the various pieces of legislation that practitioners need to refer to on a regular basis. The Mental Health Law Online website has detailed sections on the three most important acts: Mental Health Act 2007 Mental Health Act 1983 Mental [read the full story…]

Web based CBT reduces anxiety and depression in carers of people with anorexia nervosa

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Eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa can place considerable strain on families.  Parents or partners often care for people with anorexia nervosa and this can be a very distressing experience for them.  Carers naturally get very involved, but unfortunately this can sometimes lead to them criticising the sufferer and making the situation worse by contributing [read the full story…]