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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Study: Mental Illness Underdiagnosed, Undertreated

A sizeable percentage of people around the world suffer from mental illness and many people with the most serious cases aren't getting needed treatment, HealthDay reports.

The new study's authors, writing in the June 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, said that they were less surprised by the prevalence of mental illness than by the burden of the disease.

"I was amazed at how in many other countries people said 30 or 60 days a year they were totally unable to function," said Ronald Kessler, lead author of the study and professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "There really are just no other illnesses that have effects like this."

Kessler, together with co-authors from the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Consortium, analyzed data from 60,643 face-to-face interviews that had been conducted in 14 countries, six less developed and eight developed. The countries were: Colombia, Mexico, the U.S., Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, Lebanon, Nigeria, Japan, and separate surveys in Beijing, China, and Shanghai, China.

Shanghai had the lowest prevalence of having any mental disorder in the prior year (4.3 percent of the population), while the United States seemed to have the highest, with 26.4 percent. Anxiety disorders were the most common in all countries except the Ukraine.

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FDA Approves Overactive Bladder Drug

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the Indevus Pharmaceuticals drug Sanctura (trospium chloride) for overactive bladder, a condition that affects some 33 million Americans.

The medication belongs to a class of compounds known as muscarinic receptor antagonists, which relax muscle tissue in the bladder and lessen bladder contractions. Approval was granted following clinical trials in the United States and Europe involving about 3,000 people, Indevus said in a statement.

The most frequently reported side effects include dry mouth and constipation. Most people who have overactive bladder are over age 60, and Sanctura appears to have fewer drug-to-drug interactions than previously approved medications that are common to this age group, the company statement said.

The drug is expected to be available in the United States in the third quarter of this year, Indevus said.

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Something in NYC's Water May Not Be Kosher

Despite the seemingly endless number of kosher restaurants and food stores in New York City, it may be difficult to keep strictly kosher there after all -- if you believe some resident ultra-Orthodox rabbis.

They've just discovered that city's water supply -- long heralded as the gold standard for drinking water among any of the world's major cities -- contains tiny crustaceans that they say may well violate kosher standards, according to The New York Times.

The microscopic creatures, called copepods, are harmless. But they've spurred an intense religious debate because crustaceans aren't considered kosher, the newspaper reported.

Some stores in religious neighborhoods have started brandishing water filtration supplies at their cash registers. One elementary school has installed expensive filtration equipment behind its walls, the newspaper reported.

Others among the faithful tell the Times that they're still drinking the water right from the tap, noting the old adage that what they can't see won't hurt them.

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Driving Time Can Pack on the Pounds

Just in time for that long drive home from the holiday weekend comes this heavy piece of news: Where you live and how much you drive could have an effect on your weight.

Findings from a study that tracked more than 10,500 Atlanta-area residents' travel patterns and body mass index show a strong link between time spent on the road and obesity, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

The research, to be published this week in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, shows that every half hour spent in a car translates into a 3 percent greater chance of being obese. An average white man living in a compact community with nearby shops and services is expected to weigh 10 pounds less than a similar white man living in a low-density, residential-only cul-de-sac subdivision.

Lawrence Frank, the lead author and a professor at the University of British Columbia, said people who can walk to stores and restaurants are less likely to be obese than their counterparts living in more sprawling areas.

"I don't think people are equating their home-buying choices with their waistline," said Frank, a former professor at Georgia Tech. "The study shows they may want to give that a second thought."

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Medical Care on Planes Varies Widely, Report Says

Medical care for air travelers varies between airlines, according to a new British Medical Association report that calls for international rules.

The group's report, designed to provide doctors with an up-to-date summary, noted that there are no international obligations on airlines to provide emergency medical care and few rules on the content of medical kits. Medical kits contain items for health-care professionals to use, such as injectable drugs, according to a CBC News report.

In Europe, cabin crew must be trained in first aid, and in the United States, airlines are advised to carry first aid kits but it is not required. The Federal Aviation Administration's regulations exclude any requirement for airlines to provide medical care, the report said.

Passengers are advised to avoid dehydration and move around the plane when it is safe but the increase in blood flow to the legs is temporary and walking may expose passengers to a higher risk of injury during turbulence, the report said.

Although some people take aspirin, the report advises against it just for prevention of travel-related deep vein thrombosis. It said most authorities advise wearing correctly fitted compression stockings for those at medium to high risk.

Estimates on the number of passengers who fall ill on planes range from one in every 33,600, according to a U.S. study in the 1980s, to one per 1,400 in a study published in 2002 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

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U.S., Canada Adopt New Sun Radiation Risk Index

In a bid to reduce soaring skin cancer rates, the United States and Canada have joined other nations in adopting an international index that gauges the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation, according to the World Health Organization.

The Global Solar Ultraviolet Index reports UV radiation levels on a scale of 1 (low) to more than 11 (dangerously high). The index is typically given during daily weather forecasts to help people avoid sunburn, Agence France-Presse reported.

Just one bad sunburn can "significantly" increase a child's risk of getting skin cancer later in life, according to the United Nations' health agency. More than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in the United States and Canada every year.

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