Abstract:Depressive disorder is a serious medical, public and economic problem because of its unknown etiology and limitation of drug treatment. Epigenetic regulation plays an important role both in neural development and psychiatric disorders. In recent years many stress animal models identified abnormal expression of some histone deacetylases in particular brain regions which lead to depression-like behaviors. Histone deacetylase inhibitors, as a kind of epigenetic regulatory drugs, can regulate gene transcription, thus have antidepressant effect. This paper reviews the research progress of histone deacetylase and its inhibitors in depressive disorder and provides a wider range of options for the treatment of depressive disorder.