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

Prozac Beats Therapy for Teen Depression: Study

The antidepressant Prozac is significantly more effective than psychotherapy in treating teenage depression, according to a landmark U.S. government study cited by The New York Times.

Preliminary results of the study, financed by the National Institute of Mental Health, are sure to fuel the growing debate over whether Prozac and similar medications may trigger suicidal tendencies in some younger users.

Prozac is the only drug in its class to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treating childhood depression. It belongs to a group of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which also includes brand names like Paxil and Zoloft. Recent studies have indicated that these drugs may lead to suicidal behavior in teenagers, and the FDA recently advised doctors to carefully monitor younger patients who begin these drugs or change doses.

The new government study may make psychiatrists, pediatricians and the millions of families with youngsters who take these medicines rest a bit easier, the newspaper speculates. The researchers found that talk therapy by itself was no more effective than a non-medicinal placebo in combating childhood depression. Use of Prozac led to far better results, and a combination of the medication and talk therapy produced the best results of all, the Times reported.

The 36-week study involved 439 people ages 12 to 17 who had been diagnosed with moderate to severe depression. While the authors calculated an increased risk of suicide among a small number of Prozac users, lead investigator Dr. John March said the medication's benefits far outweighed its risks, the newspaper reported. March is a professor of psychiatry at Duke University.

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Yo-Yo Dieting May Affect Immune System

People who are locked in a constant cycle of losing and regaining weight may be doing long-term damage to their immune systems, according to early findings by scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The practice of yo-yo dieting appears to affect the activity of so-called "natural-killer" cells, which offer immune system protection against viruses and even cancer cells, the Seattle-based center said in a prepared statement. Frequent bouts of weight loss/gain over a 20-year period were associated with decreased natural-killer cell activity among the 114 women studied, the researchers found.

By contrast, study participants who had maintained a stable weight were found to have better-than-average immune function, the scientists said.

The researchers, writing in the June issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, noted that their results are only preliminary. Their statement cautioned that it is still not known whether it's better to carry around a few extra pounds or risk the health effects of yo-yo dieting.

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Feds Plan Expanded Mad Cow Testing

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to test 220,000 animals over the next 12 to 18 months for mad cow disease. Only 20,000 cows were tested last year, the Associated Press reports.

Testing on the first few samples began Tuesday, although most regional USDA labs aren't yet equipped for the tests, the wire service said. The expanded testing presumably will include more healthy looking cattle, as opposed to previous years when most of the animals studied could not stand or walk and had to be dragged to slaughter, according to the AP.

Many foreign governments are still reluctant to authorize the purchase of U.S. beef, following last December's first-ever domestic diagnosis of the brain-wasting disease in a cow from a dairy farm in Washington state.

Some 35 million head of cattle are slaughtered each year in the United States, the AP said.

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U.S. Judge Strikes Down Partial-Birth Abortion Ban

A federal judge in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was unconstitutional, saying the law infringed on a woman's freedom of choice, according to the Associated Press.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton came in one of three lawsuits challenging the legislation that President Bush signed last year. Federal judges in New York and Nebraska also heard arguments against the law earlier this year, but have yet to issue a decision, the AP said.

Hamilton's decision applies to Planned Parenthood clinics and their doctors, who perform roughly half the nation's 1.3 million abortions annually, the news service said.

"The act poses an undue burden on a woman's right to choose an abortion," Hamilton wrote in her decision.

In this type of procedure, a fetus is partially removed from the womb, and its skull is punctured or crushed. Doctors refer to the surgery as "intact dilation and extraction"; opponents call it "partial-birth abortion," the AP said.

Justice Department attorneys had argued that the procedure is inhumane, causes pain to the fetus, and is never medically justified. Abortion-rights advocates countered that a woman's health during an abortion is more important than how a fetus is terminated, and that the procedure is often safer than a conventional abortion, the AP said.

Pro-choice advocates also view the law as a significant shift away from the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized abortion.

Rulings in the Nebraska and New York cases are expected within weeks. All three decisions will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the AP said.

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Smoking Poses Same Cancer Risk to Women, Men

A Harvard University research team has found new evidence that women and men who have similar smoking histories share the same risk of developing lung cancer, HealthDay reports.

Results of the research, which included 85,000 men and women, appear in the June 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Using data from 1986 through 2000, study co-author Diane Feskanich, an assistant professor of medicine, and her team identified 955 cases of lung cancer among 60,296 women and 311 cases among 25,397 men.

This translates into lung cancer rates for current smokers of 253 cases per 100,000 for women and 232 cases per 100,000 for men. Among former smokers, the lung cancer rates were 81 per 100,000 for women and 73 per 100,000 for men, according to the study.

Feskanich believes that the myth that women are more susceptible to lung cancer started as more women began to smoke and their rates of lung cancer also rose. Basically, the increase in women's lung cancer rates reflected a statistical trend, not biology, she said.

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