So I can't speak to its effectiveness as an antidepressant, but they can work quite well on anxiety in many cases. I am also taking fish oil supplements to see if that helps improve things further, but I can say that low-dose fish oil for a couple of months on its own wasn't enough for me. From a nootropic standpoint, it might have some benefits regardless.
I was reading up on peripheral neuropathy, since I'm suffering some nasty nerve damage in my feet due to diabetes, and discovered that SSRIs are one of the most effective treatments for peripheral neuropathic pain. (which probably didn't help with my diabetes diagnosis, since I've been on a SSRI (paroxetine) for anxiety for the last 3 years, and it was the pains in my feet that led to testing for diabetes...)
There are treatments being developed for this kind of pain. But one of the more effective existing ones is marijuana. Marijuana dials down the glia, which breaks the feedback loop. If you live in a state that allows medical marijuana, you may wish to look into this.