Depression is a group of psychological disorders highlighted by affective disorders, manifested by significant and persistent depression for more than two weeks, accompanied by corresponding changes in thinking and behavior, with etiology closely related to psychosocial factors. With the accelerated pace of modern life, increasingly fierce competition, interpersonal relationships, family structure, emotional disorders, work pressure and a series of other problems, so that people’s thoughts and emotions are often in anxiety and anxiety, which is very likely to lead to the occurrence of depression. Depression has now become the fourth largest disease in the world, the International Conference on Depression (London): “In the next 20 years depression will pose a huge burden on national health care and will surpass cancer as the second largest disease in the world after cardiovascular disease”, the World Health Organization’s latest survey statistics analysis, the global incidence of depression The latest survey and statistical analysis of the World Health Organization, the global incidence of depression is about 3.1%, while in developed countries is close to about 6%, the global depression patients have reached 340 million. Among the adult population aged 20 years or older, depression is increasing at a rate of 11.3% per year. The incidence of depression in China is about 4%, and the prevalence rate is about 10‰ to 15‰, which is similar to the statistical results of developed countries. In contrast to the high incidence rate, depression has a low recognition rate and low treatment rate. At present, the recognition rate of depression in hospitals above the municipal level is less than 20%, and only 10% of them receive relevant medication. The economic loss caused by depression is huge and causes great pain to the patients and their families. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the recognition and treatment rates of depression. In terms of treatment for depression, there are two main types of treatment: medication and psychotherapy. Western medicine mainly focuses on antidepressant drugs that increase the concentration of 5-hydroxytryptamine and norepinephrine in the brain, but these drugs have certain efficacy, but the adverse effects are obvious, the patient’s compliance with treatment is low, and the relapse rate is high after stopping the drugs. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been used to treat depression with evidence-based treatment, safe medication with few side effects and individualized treatment plans, but the treatment efficiency for moderate to severe depression is lower than that for mild depression. The occurrence of depression not only has biological factors, but also psychosocial factors and personality factors are important causes of depression. From the perspective of psychology, depressed patients mostly have cognitive biases and pathological personality traits, and both TCM psychology and Western psychology have their own unique theories on depression, which have an undervalued role in the treatment of depression.