Abstract：Depression is a common mental disease，which seriously endangers human health. A large number of clinical and basic studies have found that Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) can play an antidepressant role by regulating the expression of neurotransmitters and their receptors. The author summarized the research progress of antidepressant effect of TCM in basic and clinical studies from the aspects of neurotransmitters including monoamines， peptides and amino acids， so as to provide a new idea for antidepressant treatment of TCM.