Dr. Andrew Weil is winning

Combating Depression With Meditation, Diet : NPR

"In his book Spontaneous Happiness, Dr. Andrew Weil writes of an 'integrative' approach to mental health, warding off mild and moderate depression with an anti-inflammatory diet, exercise and activities such as yoga and meditation, rather than antidepressants."

You can listen to the audio or read the transcript. Dr. Weil makes some great points about drawbacks of our reflexive tendency to prescribe antidepressants. I think our society would benefit from realizing:

1) Depression isn't cured by a 15 minute office visit and daily pill. Coping skills & positive outlook develop with time and effort. For a minority, antidepressant medications may facilitate this process.
2) Antidepressants --and all medications -- carry risks
3) Life's ups & downs aren't necessarily pathologic

We have good data to suggest antidepressants are no more helpful than placebo for a majority of cases of mild-to-moderate depression. It is a sad sign of our broken health care system -- and one of my greatest sorrows in my work caring for patients prone to depression -- that antidepressants have become a first-line treatment for mood disturbances that fall far short of severe clinical depression.

The quick fix lives up to only the first half of its promise.