In recent years，the incidence of depression has been increasing year by year，causing serious social and economic burdens.However，the commonly used antidepressant drugs have poor efficacy and are prone to drug resistance.Acupuncture and moxibustion is widely used in clinical practice for its unique advantages，and has achieved desirable therapeutic effects.The review summarized the related Chinese and English research on acupuncture treatment of depression in past decade from clinical efficacy and mechanism.Clinical studies evaluated the efficacy and safety of acupuncture and moxibustion in the treatment of depression from the aspects of ordinary acupuncture，electro-acupuncture，acupuncture-medicine combination，moxibustion and other therapeutic methods; the mechanism studies were carried out from neurotransmitters，neuroendocrine system-immunity，synaptic plasticity，brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF)，signaling pathway and microRNA to explore the potential mechanism of acupuncture treatment of depression.The results found that there were some shortcomings，such as inconsistent evaluation criteria，unreasonable setting of sham acupuncture control，and recurrence in acupuncture prevention and treatment of depression.Research quality needs to be further improved.