Letter: Treating depression
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Sir: In Hamish McRae's analysis of the future of the pharmaceutical industry (Comment, 6 May) he unhelpfully compares Prozac, an antidepressant drug, with Viagra, a new treatment for impotence, implying that both are treatments with dubious medical justification for non-serious disorders.
Whilst there is obviously more to the treatment of depression than medications such as Prozac, the suggestion that this disabling yet treatable condition is somehow medically unimportant must not go unchallenged.
Dr RICHARD PRETTYMAN
Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry for the Elderly
University of Leicester
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