Douglas Badenoch

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I am an information scientist with an interest in making knowledge from systematic research more accessible to people who need it. This means you. I've been attempting this in the area of Evidence-Based Health Care since 1995. So far the results have been mixed. For some reason we expected busy clinicians to search databases and appraise papers instead of seeing patients. We also expected publishers to make the research freely available to the people who paid for it.. Ha! Hence The National Elf service.

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Cannabis use in young people linked with lower high school completion and degree attainment

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André Tomlin and Douglas Badenoch voice a note of caution about the Lancet Psychiatry meta-analysis of cannabis use in young people. The study links cannabis use in children with low educational attainment, cannabis dependence, illicit drug use and suicide attempts in later life.

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Pilot study suggests that CBT may be a viable alternative to antipsychotics for people with schizophrenia, or does it?

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People with schizophrenia stop taking their antipsychotics for a wide range of reasons (e.g. debilitating side effects or a belief that they will not help them), but when they do health professionals often find it extremely difficult to care for these patients, because the alternative treatment options available to them are very limited. Of course, [read the full story…]

Digital innovation works best when users are involved at every stage

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Digital mental health is thriving in 2013 and we are thrilled to be part of the growing community with our Mental Elf website and app. We have had time to reflect on the development of the Mental Elf website recently, as André was interviewed by Hannah Nicklin from Hide and Seek who had been asked to [read the full story…]

CBT may prevent depression in at-risk children whose parents have a history of depression

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The harmful impact of depression extends far beyond the individual sufferer to caregivers, friends and family members.  Children of people with depression are more likely to suffer from depression themselves.  This may be due to both inherited and environmental factors. This new randomised controlled trial (RCT), published earlier this week in JAMA Psychiatry, set out [read the full story…]

More evidence needed on additional interventions to reduce mortality in older people with depression

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It has consistently been shown that a link exists between older adults who have depression and mortality (Cuijpers & Smit, 2002, Schulz et al., 2002). RCTs have demonstrated that treating depression during later life in primary care settings can result in the remission of depression and its associated symptoms as well as improve quality of [read the full story…]

Systematic review exposes the lack of evidence for psychosocial interventions in patients with head and neck cancer

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The Dental Elf

Today we feature a blog from our good friend, The Dental Elf, whose remit includes Head and Neck cancers. The psychological impacts of such cancers can be devastating, so we were interested to see a systematic review looking at the impact of psychosocial interventions on anxiety, depression and quality of life. Unfortunately, the bottom line [read the full story…]

New NICE TA: Aripiprazole for treating moderate to severe manic episodes in adolescents with bipolar I disorder

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Pills

NICE has just published a new technology appraisal recommending aripiprazole as a treatment for bipolar disorder in young people. Technology Appraisals are systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of health technologies.  They do not have the broad scope of guidelines, which focus on topics rather than technologies, but they do give guidance for clinical practice on the [read the full story…]

New systematic review protocols for periodontal disease and caries prevention

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Two new systematic review protocols have been published in the Cochrane Library recently.  This indicates research in progress, of course, and we would not expect results to be published for some time.  However, people who are investigating these topic areas may like to know that a review is under way. The full text of each [read the full story…]

Updated systematic review on surgery for oral cancer

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An operating theatre.

The existing Cochrane systematic review on surgical treatment of oral and oropharyngeal cancers has been updated, with important changes to the conclusions. The reviewers concluded that  there was weak evidence to suggest that dissection of clinically negative neck nodes at the time of removal of the primary tumour reduced cancer recurrence.  However, there was insufficient [read the full story…]

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No increase in infective carditis after reducing routine antibiotic prophylaxis

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NICE Guideline 64 does not recommend the routine use of antibiotic prophylaxis in invasive dental procedures to prevent infective carditis.  Their guideline states that patients should only be offered it if the procedure is at a site where there is already a suspected infection. This guidance caused some difficulties for dentists, as reported in the [read the full story…]

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