A recent Time magazine article discusses the debate. My take is that there are wide variations in effectiveness depending upon which study you read. Depression and its treatment is a difficult illness to measure and analyze. Working closely with a therapist and doctor is someone’s best bet. I really cannot understand how one could expect to beat depression without counseling. To expect to cure it without counseling as these studies attempt to do is naive and foolish. No wonder the success rates of these medications are so low. We’ve known for some time that counseling is critical and for serious depression the combination of meds and counseling is your best bet to beat it and prevent it from coming back.