To do the trend analysis of the related clinical literature of acupuncture treatment of depression and to understand the current situation and develop trend of acupuncture treatment for depression. Methods: Use the method of evidence-based medicine to search the related literature of acupuncture treatment of depression published from 1989 to 2010 by hand and by using the computer among the 5 databases which includes Chinese Biomedical Literature Database. Use SPSS 18.0 statistical software for data processing, calculation of frequency number, frequency and composition ratio, and do the analysis with non-parametric Runs test. Results: The number of literature of acupuncture treatment for depression is increasing year by year, by doing the runs test Z 4.15, P 0.05, the difference was statistically significant. Conclusion: Acupuncture as a new therapy to treat depression in recent years has been paid more and more attention, but there are relatively few randomized controlled literature, rigorous clinical randomized controlled study is needed. © 2011 IEEE.