Approach to Women Sounds Victorian

Re “Brainstorming” (April 26): I found it interesting that 10 of the 16 new uses of antidepressants listed are associated with women--such as compulsive shopping, irritability and premenstrual syndrome.

This echoes the Victorian obsession with women’s behavior, biology and psychology. Women in the Victorian era who deviated from prescribed gender roles were deemed insane and often institutionalized, while women who could afford treatment were regarded as invalids in need of costly “cures.”

These newfound applications of antidepressants are nothing more than a modern way of correcting and regulating the behavior of individuals in a society. The motivation is not the well-being of patients, but the profit reaped from overprescription.

YASMIN GOLAN

Sherman Oaks