Abstract:Objective To explore the physical, emotional, and personal characteristics among healthy college students with sad emotion in the Beginning of Winter and their relationship, and to investigate the internal mechanism of sad emotion from the aspect of traditional Chinese medicine. Methods The self-designed Physical Health Status Questionnaire (PHSQ), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale for Chinese (EPQ-RSC) were used to investigate the sad emotion among students in universities of traditional Chinese medicine in the Beginning of Winter. Results Of 308 subjects, 169 had sad emotion. There were significant differences between male and female students with sad emotion and those without sad emotion in total physical and emotional scores on the PHSQ, BAI score, BDI score, and EPQ-RSC scores (P<0.05 or P<0.01). In the 169 students with sad emotion, the physical discomforts with an frequency of occurrence over 50% were dry mouth, head discomfort, lassitude, fear of cold, pharyngeal discomfort, and susceptible sigh; 3% of the 169 students had anxious emotion, and 21.3% had depression; other emotional disorders such as attention reduction, gloom, and dysphoria were also seen in students with sad emotion. In female students, the P and N scores on EPQ-RSC were significantly higher in those with sad emotion than in those without sad emotion, while the L score was significantly lower in former group (P<0.01); In male students, the E score on EPQ-RSC was significantly lower in those with sad emotion than in those without sad emotion (P<0.01). Pearson correlation analysis showed that sad emotion was significantly associated with BAI and BDI scores, as well as the scores on some physical health subscales. Conclusion College students with sad emotion have some physical discomforts, as well as emotional disorders, and the difference in personality traits exists between male and female students. The pathogenesis of sad emotion includes liver depression and spleen deficiency, stasis of the gastric qi, and disorder of qi movement.