Why are depressed patients prescribed antidepressants when, after stopping them, they often return to their previous depressive state?

With severe depression, taking antidepressants is necessary. This reduces the risk of suicide and significantly improves a person's well-being and quality of life.

Treatment of the disorder is not limited to taking antidepressants, it is usually also psychotherapeutic work. Therefore, after discontinuation of drugs, a person does not always return to a depressive state.

If this happens, antidepressants return to a person.

With severe depression, taking antidepressants is necessary. This reduces the risk of suicide and significantly improves a person's well-being and quality of life.

Treatment of the disorder is not limited to taking antidepressants, it is usually also psychotherapeutic work. Therefore, after discontinuation of drugs, a person does not always return to a depressive state.

If this happens, antidepressants return to a person.

This is a difficult question, because treatment with antidepressants for major depressive disorder is always a complex process, in which, in addition to pills, a psychotherapist, a neurologist, and so on are also involved. Moreover, the psychotherapist not only passively prescribes pills and monitors the patient, in which case, adjusting the treatment, but directly conducts weekly sessions of psychotherapy.
Naturally, the fact that if a person just drinks a course of pills, and his situation in life and attitude to it will not change - then the return of depression is only a matter of time, it looks quite logical. That is why such a large role of psychotherapy is assigned, where, ideally, a person should be taught to cope with difficulties and overcome what is the cause of his condition, if you add to this the effect of drugs, auto-training and other gadgets, you can get a very good and working combination. And you need to be prepared for the fact that it will take a really long time, for example, in one of the books by Irvin Yalom, he described a 3.5-year-long treatment case after a person lost his entire family in a plane crash. Yes, this situation will stay with him for life and change his attitude towards it, but nevertheless the result of the treatment was positive, he returned to society and became a full-fledged member of it, without experiencing daily suffering.
Among other things, we must not forget about the symptoms associated with stopping the intake of blood pressure, because there are early consequences, in the form of a decrease in the background mood, short-term neuroses, headaches that disappear within 2-3 weeks, as well as distant, in the form of a person literally cannot "rejoice without pills." And here again, a large role belongs to the doctor, who must initially prescribe the drug and the method of its use correctly; in modern blood pressure, by the way, the withdrawal syndrome is much less common, especially if it is canceled according to a competent scheme (usually it is 20 days for 3 / 4 tablets, 20 days 1/2 and another 20 days 1/4), in this case, the withdrawal symptoms disappear in most patients, but teaching the patient to rejoice and live without drug support is the doctor's job, which should be performed directly during treatment with drugs and some time after their cancellation.
Of course, in fairness, it is worth saying that in Russia, not all doctors work according to such schemes, prescribing pills, without explaining anything from what we have such poor results at the end of treatment. But there are good specialists, and they are everywhere. By the way, I also had to seek help from a psychotherapist, I also drank a six-month course of blood pressure, and in my case, just this combination of the drug and psychotherapy sessions gave an excellent result.