Objective To explore the different characteristics of exploratory eye movement （EEM）in elderly patients with bipolar and unipolar depression in acute phase. Methods The general situation， disease characteristics， EEM test， Hamilton Depression Scale （HAMD） evaluation and correlation analysis were carried out in 34 elderly patients with bipolar depression （biphasic group） and 38 patients with monophasic depression （monophasic group）. Results There was no significant difference in HAMD-24 total score and 7 factors of HAMD （P ＞ 0.05）. The results of the EEM in two groups were abnormal. There was no significant difference between two groups in the mumber of eye fixation （NEF） （P ＞ 0.05）. The responsive search score （RSS） in monophasic group was lower than that in biphasic group （P ＜ 0.05）， and the D value was higher than that in biphasic group （P ＜ 0.05）. There was no significant correlation between eye movement and HAMD， general condition and disease characters （P ＞ 0.05）. Conclusions There are different characteristics of RSS and D values in EEM of the elderly patients with bipolar and monophasic depression in the acute stage， and they have little relationship with clinical symptoms and general demographic indicators， which need further exploration and analysis.