Objective To study the clinical characteristics of senile depression in elderly patients with different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) constitution and syndrome types in communities and to provide a basis for clinical treatment and health care for these patients.Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted in permanent residents over 55 years old,who were selected by multi-stage random sampling from 25 communities in 5 towns in Shanghai Pudong New Area,to screen out the patients with senile depression.TCM constitution identification and syndrome differentiation were performed in the patients to investigate the relationship of TCM constitution and syndrome types with clinical types.Results A total of 4 600 residents were selected in the survey, and 4 047 completed questionnaires were returned. A total of 519 patients with senile depression were screened out. As for TCM constitution types, qi-stagnation constitution (122 cases), yang-deficiency constitution (99 cases), and qi-deficiency constitution (99 cases) were the most common ones, accounting for 61.66% of all types; other types included balanced constitution (94 cases), yin-deficiency constitution (37 cases), blood stasis constitution (26 cases), phlegm-dampness constitution (18 cases), damp-heat constitution (17 cases), and inherited special constitution (7 cases). As for TCM syndrome types, liver-qi stagnation syndrome was the most common one (141 cases), followed by liver-stagnation and spleen-deficiency syndrome (132 cases), heart-spleen deficiency syndrome (77 cases), and liver-kidney ying-deficiency syndrome (59 cases). Conclusion The patients with senile depression usually have depressive emotion which results in the disease.The TCM constitution and syndrome types are mostly qi stagnation and excess syndrome in the early stage,but the patients will have deficiency transformed from excess if left untreated,finally leading to interior deficiency.