Depression is a major global health challenge affecting millions worldwide. We evaluated theresearch status of depression disease burden by searching articles published between 2013 and 2022 in the Webof Science Core Collection and CNKI. We analyzed 6 828 English articles and 38 Chinese articles usingCiteSpace and VOSviewer. Our study aimed to explore current trends，regions，institutions，authors，journals，keywords，and co-citations in this field. Our findings show that depression research in China is still at theinitial stage，while it has reached a high degree of maturity in other countries，especially in Europe，America，and Asia. The United States dominates this field，as 80% of the top ten authors and 40% of the top teninstitutions come from this country. Its number of related institutions，professional researchers，and high-impactjournals exceeds that of any other country，making it a global leader in the depression research. Our analysis ofkeywords and co-citations revealed that popular topics in depression research include developing and optimizingscreening tools， the relationship between psychological distress and depression， the correlation betweendepression，and chronic diseases and the treatment and management of treatment - resistant depression. Ourstudy provides valuable insights into current trends and hot topics in depression research，which may informfuture research directions aiming to alleviate the burden of depressive disease.