The dirty argument is not a great one, though, because most illnesses (especially depression) cause changes to a number of networks, and not just one particular

The dirty argument is not a great one, though, because most illnesses (especially depression) cause changes to a number of networks, and not just one particular receptor subtype or subunit of that receptor subtype. I agree that more mechanistic studies (and more clinical studies) need to be done anyways, but having multiple action sites isn't necessarily a bad thing. As far as the "jolt" and continued therapy with CBT - this is how treating MDD is generally supposed to be done. Policy issues making it difficult aside, the CBT + antidepressant combo is empirically more effective than drugs alone (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918025/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3918025/ - there are more but this is a meta-analysis so it captures a lot of data).