facts:
generally better than placebo at reducing severe depression (pharma industry loves this)
better than placebo at increasing suicide in children (pharma industry hates this)
not technically addictive, but likely to form dependency and cause withdrawal if/when you stop
most of the patents expired in the 2000s, which made them cheap and widespread, but also means big business isn't really getting rich off the common ones anymore - prozac, zoloft, paxil, effexor, serzone iirc
>okay but I saw a study that said they were no better than placebo
Probably one of these two, they seem to be the ones most often mentioned in the news/alt media:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18303940
>2008 - meta-analysis of the clinical trials of four new SSRIs submitted to the FDA (luoxetine, venlafaxine, nefazodone, and paroxetine)
>These findings suggest that, compared with placebo, the new-generation antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or even very severe depression, but show significant effects only in the most severely depressed patients. The findings also show that the effect for these patients seems to be due to decreased responsiveness to placebo, rather than increased responsiveness to medication. Given these results, the researchers conclude that there is little reason to prescribe new-generation antidepressant medications to any but the most severely depressed patients unless alternative treatments have been ineffective.
https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=185157
>2010 - meta-analysis of clinical trials submitted to the FDA (data from 6 studies with the same standards, 718 patients)
>The magnitude of benefit of antidepressant medication compared with placebo increases with severity of depression symptoms and may be minimal or nonexistent, on average, in patients with mild or moderate symptoms. For patients with very severe depression, the benefit of medications over placebo is substantial.
Full disclosure: I have been on an antidepressant in the past, following a head injury. It helped. Side effects were awful and I got off it asap. Therapy helped more than the drug.
I recommend you ask your doctor about any medical treatment rather than the internet.