Sixty-nine articles were reviewed to understand the depression in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Among these articles, forty seven were the studies that dealt with depression in rheumatoid disease, nineteen studied the depression in patients with other chronic disease or in normals, and three were the studies that compared the depression in the patients with rheumatic disease and in the other subjects. Specifically, the articles were analyzed (1) to determine whether the patients with rheumatic arthritis were more depressed than normal population or subjects with other chronic diseases ; (2) to test whether the measurement problems exit ; (3) to identify the disease related, personal, psychologic, and demographic variables to affect the depression and (4) to identify the nursing interventions which improve the depression in rheumatoid arthritis. Based upon these results, some suggestion were made for future research and practice.