[meowface]

Few drugs solely act to agonize or antagonize a single type of receptor in a single part of the brain. Many of these compounds do a lot of different things, some big and some small. Anti-depressants have very complex mechanisms of action which we don't fully understand, and may not understand for a long time. They are a rough and imprecise solution to what for some is an otherwise intractable and potentially fatal problem.

Obviously therapy and other techniques should be attempted before drug prescription, but your friend is grossly oversimplifying how these drugs work and how psychiatrists portray how they work.

[ggm]

I grossly oversimplified what he said, and he's a trained clinical psychologist. The underlying point is exactly what you said: Anti-depressants have very complex mechanisms of action which we don't fully understand, and may not understand for a long time.

That they work is good. That they work about as well as CBT does, poses questions which as you observe goes to: Obviously therapy and other techniques should be attempted before drug prescription

[ComputerGuru]

With no disrespect intended to your friend, a trained clinical psychologist wouldn’t necessarily know the underlying mechanism of these drugs. The split between medical psychiatry and clinical psychology is real.