Objective To investigate the effect of delighted thinking on improving negative emotion of depression patients. Methods 100 depression patients were randomly divided into the observation group and the control group with 50 in each according to admission sequence. Both groups was executed antidepressionant drugs treatment and routine psychiatric care simultaneously. The observation group was given delighted thinking training on the basis of above treatment. The emotional recovery of two groups was observed. Results There was significant difference on facial expression, communication and limbs language after executing delighted thinking training in the observation group. And there was significant difference on scores of Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD) at discharge. Scores of Nurses' Observation Scale during early, middle and late stage of delighted thinking training greatly improved compared with those before training. Conclusions Delighted thinking contributes to throw off negative thinking pattern of self-denial, stimulate positive passion threshold, improve depressed mood and raise treatment effect for depression patients.