Abstract: Objective: To explore the effect of self-help intervention based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on depressive symptoms and mental health status of first-episode depression outpatients. Methods: We randomly divided 126 first-episode depression outpatients from two tertiary hospitals in Changsha into the no-guided experimental group (n=42),the guided experimental group (n=42) and the control group (n=42). During and after the intervention, 25 subjects were lost to follow-up, Finally, there were 39 subjects in the no-guided experimental group, 32 in the guided experimental group and 30 in the control group. An antidepressant skills workbook was provided for each patient in the non-guided experimental group, besides, one telephone guidence every two weeks was provided for each patient in the guided experimental group,while no specific training was supplied to the control group. We evaluated all subjects with Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) and 10-item Kessler Scale (K10) before the self-help intervention and 2 months after the intervention. Results: After the intervention, the scores of both BDI and K10 in three groups decreased significantly (P<0.05). There was no significant change after the intervention in the scores of BDI and K10 between the experimental group and the control group (P>0.05).Conclusions: The cognitive behavioral self-help intervention by self-help manual could not effectively improve depressive symptoms and mental health status of first-episode depression outpatients. We suggest that intensity of intervention should be strengthened in future study.