But who is claiming that? I've read a bit about it for uhm personal reasons, both industry propaganda and literature by medical experts, and none of them claim that SSRIs cure depression. In fact they admit that it is not known how SSRIs and depression (or bipolar disorder) are correlated, all they can say is that sometimes they are.
Not long ago a doctor told me about depression that it "is not about your personality, it is just a change in the chemistry of your brain." To which I replied 'what is personality if not chemistry in our brain?' Indeed, I find it difficult to understand why people are so resistant to the idea that all our "higher" intellectual and affective states are in fact functions of the human brain chemistry. If it is not chemistry then what is it? Souls, spirits, and all that metaphysical mumbo jumbo? How can a rational person can seriously consider such hogwash that does not even have an empirical meaning?
BTW, I am back from Ethiopia - flew back in last night. It is calm there, life seems going as usual, but there is heavy military presence in the streets, and a lot of people who are, uhm, unhappy about the government. The death toll, I was told by those claiming to witness the shootings, was at least twice as high as that officially reported.
Wojtek