To analyze the medication rules of Chinese patent medicine compounds in the treatment of depression by virtue of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Inheritance Support System(TCMISS) to provide a basis for clinical drug formulation and new drug development.Methods:National patents on Chinese medicine compounds against depression in 2015—2020 were retrieved from the website of the China National Intellectual Property Administration(http://epub.sipo.gov.cn/).By TCMISS，the core drugs，as well as their nature，flavor，meridian tropism，formulation rules，and new prescriptions were analyzed by data mining methods such as frequency statistics，association rules，and complex system entropy clustering.Results:A total of 126 Chinese patent medicine compounds in the treatment of depression were included，involving 176 single drugs.The commonly used drugs included Bupleuri Radix，Curcumae Radix，Ziziphi Spinosae Semen，Paeoniae Radix Alba，and Albiziae Cortex.The commonly used drug pairs were Paeoniae Radix Alba-Bupleuri Radix，Curcumae Radix-Paeoniae Radix Alba，Angelicae Sinensis Radix-Paeoniae Radix Alba，and Curcumae Radix-Paeoniae Radix Alba.The drugs were mainly sweet，bitter，and pungent in flavor and warm in nature，and acted on liver，heart，and spleen meridians.The association rules between drugs indicated “Angelicae Sinensis Radix，Paeoniae Radix Alba->Bupleuri Radix”“Glycyrrhizae Radix et Rhizoma，Paeoniae Radix Alba->Bupleuri Radix”，etc.with high confidence.There were 20 pairs of core combinations and 10 new prescriptions.Conclusion:By TCMISS，this paper analyzed medication rules of Chinese patent medicine compounds in the treatment of depression to provide new ideas for clinical treatment and references for drug selection and formulation.