In traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)，there is “kidney storing essence and essence governing memory”，which suggests that kidney is closely related to mental activities.Clinical research has shown that Chinese medicinal formulas of tonifying the kidney have good effects on depression，anxiety，schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases.Kidney-tonifying formulas can act on hypothalamus，hippocampus，amygdala and other related brain regions as well as improve the behavior of animals，playing an antipsychotic role.The neuropharmacological mechanism is correlated with the regulation of hypothalamus-pituitary-target gland axis，the synthesis and release of neurotransmitters and neurotrophic factors，and related signaling pathways.This paper pointed out the existing problems in current basic and clinical research.Moreover，the research ideas and application prospect of kidney-tonifying formulas in the prevention and treatment of psychiatric diseases were discussed from animal models of disease and TCM syndromes，multi-discipline and multi-way combination，evidence-based medicine and assessment of clinical response.