Women Addiction By Michael R. Aldrich

Michael R. Aldrich sums up women’s addictions from the late 19th century to the early 20th century in his article, Historical Notes On Women Addicts. He briefly summarizes multiple studies that found statistics showed more women than men, were addicts during that time period. However, he then analyzed the time period to further explain how the statistics could be legitimate, since they were self report surveys, which always have the limitation of social desirability. He explains the historical contexts that led woman to such high rates of addiction, the types of women who were addicts, how their addiction were fed and grew due to society in the nineteenth century, and the consequences of female opiate addiction, including how it effects female addicts today. Women were prescribed lower dosages of opiates than men and it was thought that it was safe for women to take opiates. They were prescribed these drugs for all sorts of reasons from “melancholy,” today known as depression, nervousness, “female troubles,” and any other behavior that women may partake in that differs than men. Therefore, large numbers of women were prescribed drugs for no medically

Jones suggest women have lower drug dosages and that it was safe for them to consume drugs. From there addiction in women increased until the late 1800’s when drugs began to be outlawed. The main drugs Dr. Aldrich focused on in the article that he contributed to the rise of consistent trend of addiction among women were opium, morphine, laudanum and coca along with referring to opiates in general over the course of the essay. In this sense, there is little organization to his essay concerning which drugs were used when. He explains opiates were used in the late 1700’s, then jumps to explain morphine and opiom was used in the 1830’s by the “harried society lady.” Then he jumps into iatrogenic addiction and the continuation of drug use by women in the late