Well, I am no expert, that is for sure. This was something I have just wondered about a lot.
I can tell you from much experience with friends, that many of the anti-depressants seem to make them seem dissociated from everyone else. Like a wall is between them and their emotions - in this environment, evil can fester.
It is just scary to watch someone get onto that stuff and seem to retreat from their emotions (including their conscience). I often think that diet, exercise and some good counseling sessions would be more useful.
Again, please don’t think I have spent much time considering this. It is just something that comes to mind whenever this kind of carnage happens. I always wonder why, when we delve into every part of their lives, the use of specific anti-depressants is not part of the general conversation (like their old girlfriends, where they like to go eat, how much time they spend on the net, and other kinds of odd information.)
that said, the brain is a very complicated device, some problems MUST be medicated 'properly', which when done, gives relief to the individual, and being human, once they start feeling better they stop the meds and the brain kinda shorts out again...
former pastors' wife is a great example...they spent literally months/yrs at a time over her life [shes in her 80s] getting the 'right' combo of drugs to manage her brain chemicals...then she comes off of the meds and goes depression/'sick' again...as in emotionally dying, 'shut-in' sick/depressed...UN-functional...
at that point the previous cocktail doesnt work anymore and they start the whole process over again...
the last time the doctors stopped the meds due to a needed surgery, [they were concerned with reactions to the anesthesia ?] and its been well over a year now and they are just startin to get the right mix again...
of course, as said before, most of the population could simply benefit from diet and exercise, and a little 'reality' that life aint exactely about their petty selves and learn to live in 'the world' and accept their responsibilities...
too deep for most sheep...