Let us try to see if what is claimed is possibly true. The first premise is that there is "an epidemic of mania, mayhem, and murder". We can begin with crime statistics. In January of this year, the Washington Post had an article on life expectancy- and points at what has been happening with the murder rate.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...-50-year-low/2012/01/11/gIQAo5tDrP_story.html
Hmm. No massive murder waves- in fact, murder rate continues to decline- hitting a 50 year low. It adds that ant-social behavior has also been declining.
Now it is certainly possible that anti-depressant usage contributes to higher murder rates but for us to have a good corelation the usage should move with the murder rate. Since the murder rate is down we need to have the anti-depressant usage to also be going down. Is that happening? I guess not.
http://www.webmd.com/depression/news/20111019/use-of-antidepressants-on-the-rise-in-the-us
Since the murder rate is moving in the OPPOSITE direction from anti-depressant usage there is no provable corelation.
What the article may be actually pointing out is that perhaps people likely to commit murder may also be on anti-depressants (they may be on the drugs because of a mental problem which also causes them to kill people) but even without the anti- depressants may still be likely to commit mayhem or murder. It is also It does not show that the consumption of the anti-depressants is the cause. It is also possible that for some people that being on anti- depressants may make them LESS likely to commit murder.
Not just murder down, but all violent crime:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24crime.html
Anti-depressant usage has doubled while violent crime has fallen by 50%.