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

Psoriasis Drug Enbrel Gets Black Box Label Warning

The label of the skin disorder drug Enbrel will carry a stronger boxed warning about the risk of life-threatening infections such as tuberculosis and sepsis. Information about the bolstered warning was posted Thursday on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site, and drug makers Wyeth and Amegen Inc. alerted doctors in a March 14 letter.

A black box warning is the most serious a drug can carry. Previously, the warning information appeared in bolded text, which is considered a less serious warning, the Associated Press reported.

"Patients should be educated about the symptoms of infection and closely monitored for signs and symptoms of infection during and after treatment with Enbrel," the warning label states. It notes that tuberculosis was observed in two out of 20,000 patients who took part in drug company studies.

Enbrel is primarily used to treat psoriasis and sometimes used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and rare autoimmune disorders, the AP reported.

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FDA Panel to Assess Abuse-Resistant OxyContin

A new version of the painkiller OxyContin, designed to be harder to abuse, will be evaluated Monday by a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel to determine if the reformulated version should be allowed on the market before long-term studies determine if it actually reduces abuse.

The new version has a plastic-like coating that makes it harder to crush and turns it into a gooey mess if someone tries to inject it, according to drug maker Purdue Pharma LP, the Associated Press reported.

After OxyContin was introduced in 1996, abusers quickly found they could get a heroin-like high if they snorted or injected crushed tablets.

In a letter to the advisory panel, Dr. Bob Rappaport, the FDA's chief of painkilling drugs, wrote that "there is no perfect formulation that can resist all forms of tampering." If approved, the label on the new version of OxyContin "would have to be carefully crafted so as to avoid the publication of a road map describing how to defeat these changes," he said.

An abuse-resistant gelatin-like form of the drug is being developed by two other companies, Pain Therapeutics Inc. and King Pharmaceuticals, the AP reported.

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Antidepressants May Help Treat Bowel Disorder

Antidepressants may help people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), say Canadian researchers who identified a link between IBD and depression, CBC News reported.

"The gut is intimately connected to the brain, more than any other organ in the body," lead researcher Jean-Eric Ghia, a post-doctoral fellow at McMaster University in Hamilton, said in a prepared statement.

In tests on depressed mice with IBD, the researchers found that the antidepressant desmethylimipramine reduced intestinal inflammation in the intestines and restored normal intestinal function. But this treatment wasn't effective in mice with no vagus nerve, which runs between the brain stem and the gastrointestinal tract, CBC News reported.

Ghia said the findings "prompt close consideration of the relationship between depression and disease activity in patients with IBD." If there is a link, "then depressed patients with IBD might be selected for novel treatment strategies" that could include antidepressants.

The study appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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More People Fainting After Vaccinations

Since 2005, there's been a rise in reports of people in the United States fainting after receiving vaccinations, according the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The increase has occurred primarily among adolescent females and, in some cases, patients have suffered significant injuries.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration analyzed the data and identified 463 reports of post-vaccination fainting among people over age five between Jan. 1, 2005 and July 31, 2007, compared to 203 reports during 2002-2004.

In some 63.1 percent of the 463 reports during 2005--2007, fainting was associated with at least one of the following recently approved and recommended adolescent vaccines: MCV4, Tdap, and HPV.

The findings appear in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, published by the CDC.

The study authors said fainting-related injuries could be prevented if vaccine providers follow the recommended 15-minute post-vaccination observation and waiting period.

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House Passes Genetic Anti-Discrimination Bill

A bill to protect people from discrimination based on their genetic information was approved by the House Thursday in a 414-1 vote. Last week, the Senate passed the legislation 95-0. President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.

The bill would forbid companies from using genetic information to make hiring, firing or promotion decisions, and would prohibit insurers from using genetic information to set premiums or determine enrollment eligibility, the Associated Press reported.

The only member of Congress who voted against the bill was Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

Proponents say the legislation will help ease people's fears about having genetic testing to determine if they're at increased risk for a wide range of hereditary diseases.

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Pittsburgh Sootiest U.S. City: Report

Pittsburgh is the first city outside of California to be named the sootiest in the nation, but Los Angeles is still the all-around air pollution leader, says an American Lung Association annual report released Thursday.

Soot, or short-term particle pollution, is one of three air pollution categories looked at by the association. Los Angeles has long been the leader in soot and smog levels, but tough new pollution laws have led to a significant drop in L.A.'s soot levels.

"It's not that Pittsburgh has gotten worse, it's that Los Angeles has gotten better. If the trend continues, Pittsburgh will top two lists, and L.A. will only be leading the nation in ozone," Janice Nolen, the association's assistant vice president of national policy and advocacy, told the Associated Press.

The eight metropolitan areas with the worst overall air pollution were: Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Visalia-Porterfield, and Hanford-Corcoran, all in California; Washington-Baltimore; St. Louis; and Birmingham, Ala.

Fargo, N.D. and Salina, Calif. had the cleanest air in areas evaluated, the AP reported.