Objective To evaluate the effects of residual symptoms on the recovery of social function in patients with depression after clinical treatment of acute remission after 8 to 12 weeks. Methods This study was a multicenter， two-phase study. The first cycle was cross-sectional survey（ from September 2014 to April 2015） and the second cycle was cohort study（ from September 2015 to August 2017）. The assessment data of the subjects at the end of acute period in this 8 to 12 week treatment of depressive episode was chosen as the baseline for all the subjects. Patients were assessed for Brief 16-Item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology Self- Report（ QIDS-SR16）， Patient Health Questionnaire-15（ PHQ-15） and Sheehan Disability Scale（ SDS）. Any 9 dimensions of QIDS-SR16 in excess of 1 was taken as a single residual symptom standard， and the total score of SDS over 6， item score over 2 was taken as functional impairment standard. Results A total of 925 subjects were enrolled and divided into two groups based on their functional impairment. There were still about 24.22% （224/925） of those with functional injury. Physical symptoms， recurrence patients， sleep problems， lacking of interest， fatigue and anxiety and other factors affect the subject's functional remission. Conclusions Residual symptoms in patients who achieve clinical remission after acute phase are the influencing factors of their functional impairment.