Meta-analysis is a scientific term that refers to a structured review of a particular topic in the research literature. Meta-analyses look at a bunch of research studies that have been previously published, combine all their data (or look at all of their data in a systematic fashion), and come to some broad, general conclusions from the analysis.

Meta-analyses are helpful to researchers, clinicians and laypeople alike, because they help distill the entire research literature on a specific topic into an easily digested summary.

In this research update, we look at cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for childhood posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), effective treatments for depression in a mother surrounding the birth of her child, and a look at anxiety symptom prevention with cognitive-behavioral interventions.

Take a minute and answer this question: Is anyone really normal today?

I mean, even those who claim they are normal may, in fact, be the most neurotic among us, swimming with a nice pair of scuba fins down the river of Denial. Having my psychiatric file published online and in print for public viewing, I get to hear my share of dirty secrets—weird obsessions, family dysfunction, or disguised addiction—that are kept concealed from everyone but a self-professed neurotic and maybe a shrink.

“Why are there so many disorders today?” Those seven words, or a variation of them, surface a few times a week. And my take on this query is so complex that, to avoid sounding like my grad school professors making an erudite case that fails to communicate anything to average folks like me, I often shrug my shoulders and move on to a conversation about dessert. Now that I can talk about all day.

Here’s the abridged edition of my guess as to why we mark up more pages of the DSM-IV today than, say, a century ago (even though the DSM-IV had yet to be born).

Today is Veteran’s Day, and we’d like to take a moment to honor those men and women who have chosen to serve our country in military service. With an all-voluntary armed forces, our country is at the mercy of individuals who, for little reason other than a desire to serve their country, willingly risk their lives and put their entire ordinary lives on hold (especially those in the National Guard and reservists). For you and I.

We should do all that we can to ensure these folks come back to a country who welcomes them home, is thankful for their service, and provides them with all the necessary health and mental health care humanly possible. That’s our duty, as ordinary citizens, to recognize the sacrifice these men and women have made.

I’d also like to take a moment to recognize a number of organizations that were present this year at the 26th annual Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy this year, who offer help and mental health services to returning veterans.

Last week at the 26th annual Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Policy Symposium, I came away from the two days feeling like there are a lot of people who know and care about the issues discussed. This year’s topic was on helping returning soldiers — especially the National Guard and Reservists — reintegrate within their family, the workplace, and the community.

It seems timely to talk about some of these issues to honor tomorrow, Veterans Day.

The most moving stories for me came from the day’s first panel discussion, focused on the family. Ron Capps, a 25 year veteran of the U.S. Army and Army Reserves, told his story of dealing with the realities of war, and then of coming home and dealing with his feelings.

“At the end of the day, I found myself categorizing myself as ‘All right, vaguely not all right, and seriously not all right.’”

Somewhere I read that properly diagnosing a chronic illness can take from two to three years. Many of you wait even longer. In the meantime, while the doctors scratch their heads, we’re expected to be happy we’re alive. And that’s if they don’t write us off with “It’s psychological.”

It took a year and three doctors before I was diagnosed with scleroderma. Just remembering what I went through during that year-from-hell gets my blood boiling and I know I was one of the lucky ones.

If you are experiencing symptoms but don’t have a diagnosis yet, here are some tips that I hope will help you get through this trying time a little easier.

Trust yourself. You are not crazy. Physicians have referred many people to me before they had a diagnosis, even doctors who don’t know what else to do for their patients.

ALL of them eventually received a medical diagnosis. That’s right. All of them.

With another hurricane on the warpath up the East Coast of the U.S. this week, many people are scrambling for shelter and safety. Evacuations are taking place, and while everyone is rightfully focused on their physical safety, our emotional health is at risk during times of increased stress too. There are ways you can better cope emotionally with an impending hurricane — to brace yourself emotionally from the significant amounts of stress you’re about to endure.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that a hurricane is a fairly short natural event. For most people, it means having to deal with a couple of days of moving out of the area and then moving back. While the effects of the hurricane may endure much longer — especially if your home was damaged or destroyed — the actual hurricane itself tends to move fairly quickly through each region.

The impact of having to deal with the significant damage of your home or even losing it altogether can be much greater than the stress of getting out of the hurricane’s path. People who lose part or all of their home go through a typical grief reactions — grieving the loss of all that they’ve accumulated or built.

I often write about the latest research findings in mental health or psychology here, but most of the day-to-day work of helping people with a mental health issue falls onto people in one’s local community. Sure, psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professionals do the bulk of the work — individually or in small groups — but always in private and with little notice or recognition.

Beyond these front-line professionals, there are hundreds of small organizations, loosely-knit groups, and other advocates who expend constant effort to try and help people learn more about mental health concerns and reach others with their message.

At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), a group of students is being trained to help recognize the signs and symptoms of depression and other serious mental health concerns. Because who better to help a fellow student in need than another student or one of their friends?

Today I have the honor of interviewing a woman who is a survivor in all meanings of that word. Kathy Lockhart is a professional Registered Nurse with a Master’s Degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of Virginia and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from California State University, East Bay.

She became interested in Domestic Violence after being in an abusive relationship. She has been an active volunteer for a community Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Hotline for the past 14 years and is an advocate for victims of domestic violence and rape. She knows Domestic Violence can happen to anyone. She is a living example of how women can break free from abuse and live a meaningful life.

Good news for veterans — the U.S. Veterans Administration is easing rules in order to qualify for benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Under the new rules to be introduced as early as next week, soldiers will no longer have to show documentation that they directly experienced or were witness to a “traumatic event” — like a firefight, a bomb blast, or the death of a friend in combat.

Getting supporting documentation has sometimes been a frustrating and challenging experience for soldiers. War zones aren’t always known for keeping the best paper records, and not every action or firefight is well-documented.

“Today is a new day!” — Chicken Little

Ms. Little released the following transcript with permission.

Therapist: Let me make sure I understand this. So you initially believed the sky was falling?
Chicken Little: I know it seems ridiculous now, but I was convinced it was happening.
T: What made you think so?
CL: I was hit on the head.
T: By the sky?
CL: Well, yes, I thought it was.
T: What made you think it was the sky?
CL: Well, it came from above my head, and I thought it was the end of the world.
T: But you started to think there might be other explanations.
CL: Yes, but I always think the worst. If I sneeze, I have swine flu. If I call my boyfriend and he doesn’t answer, I think he is with some other chick.
T: Literally?
CL: Yes, there are a lot of good-looking chicks in my area of the woods.

This is my 22nd Mother’s Day. Or my first, depending on how you look at it.

You can read my experiences with being a birthmom here and here. Part 3 is rather happier: This is the first Mother’s Day following my ridiculously blissful reunion with my wonderful son and his equally wonderful parents.

It’s hard to say much, mostly because the memories of those few days in December are so intensely personal and the emotions still so raw. I’m not quite ready to let the world in on them. What I will say is that, as magical as it all was, and as healing as it all was, it wasn’t a cure-all. Right now, I’m on my third antidepressant combo in two months, trying to get out of the most recent episode, just so you know that even really joyous events don’t instantly cure longstanding mental illnesses and trauma.

I wanted to mention that because May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. I saw a headline the other day stating that most Americans think the stigma of mental illness is fading. I’d say it’s a safe bet those are the people who don’t suffer from it or know anyone who does. My mental health has, directly or indirectly, cost me every job I’ve ever had, and affects even my part-time, work-mostly-from-home gig now. Trust me — there’s still plenty of stigma to go around.

You can “malinger” — fake — virtually any mental disorder, because mental illness is defined by symptom lists that are self-reported. That is, you tell the doctor or therapist the symptoms you’re experiencing, and they simply go down the list and figure out which disorder the symptoms best fit into. Since the symptoms are self-reported, you can easily make up the symptoms to qualify for whatever diagnosis you want.

In medicine, things are a bit different. Although doctors might use your self-reported symptoms as a starting point on how to diagnose the medical problem you present with, they can usually followup by ordering a series of laboratory tests to confirm their diagnosis. There is no equivalent for mental health concerns (although there are many paper-and-pencil psychological tests have very good validity when it comes to differential diagnoses; these, however, are rarely used in daily practice).

So when I come across an article like this Associated Press one — talking about how some soldiers may be faking post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) in order to gain benefits — it makes me cringe a little.