WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Children whose mothers use methamphetamine during pregnancy may suffer more severe brain damage than children exposed to alcohol in the womb, a new study suggests.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Gays and lesbians are excluded from many medical studies involving issues of sexual health such as impotence or low sex drive, a new report finds.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Less expensive physicians may not help reduce U.S. health-care costs, a new study suggests.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- The availability of public automated external defibrillators (AEDs) increases the odds of surviving a heart attack with little neurological consequences, suggests new research.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Plugging certain genetic data into the standard risk-assessment model for breast cancer won't do much to help gauge a woman's odds for getting the disease, a new study shows.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- The Esteem implanted hearing system is the first completely implanted system approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for adults with moderate-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss, a permanent lack of hearing, the agency said Wednesday.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Men who physically abuse their partners overestimate how often such violence occurs, which helps them justify their own actions, according to a new study.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- About 20 percent of Americans have prediabetes and are at high risk for developing type 2 diabetes, the American Diabetes Association reports.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- People with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) aren't at increased risk for polyps, colon cancer or inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease and, in most cases, don't require a colonoscopy, U.S. researchers say.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Although women have less sex as their pregnancy progresses, they don't enjoy the experience any less, new research shows.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Even detailed counseling by doctors doesn't seem to help parents of children having surgery understand or remember all the risks of the procedures, researchers have found.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Close to two-thirds (61 percent) of American adults consider themselves drinkers, a new U.S. government report finds.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that young boys who own a video game system don't do as well academically as their non-playing peers, suggesting that time spent playing video games is supplanting time spent on homework.

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

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- In the ongoing struggle to find treatments -- and maybe one day even a cure -- for dementia, researchers are focusing their attention on high blood pressure, long a culprit for a variety of other ills and an ailment for which many drugs are already available.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- People with chronic low back pain that keeps them away from work can recover an average of four months earlier if they take part in a specific type of rehabilitation program, a new study suggests.

WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- Infections are more common when orthopedic surgeons use metal staples instead of old-fashioned nylon sutures to close wounds, British researchers report.

(HealthDay News) -- LASIK eye surgery reduces a person's need to wear glasses or contact lenses. But an improvement in vision often isn't quick.

(HealthDay News) -- A cast or splint provides protection for bones that are fractured or otherwise injured.