Depression and anxiety are reported as common issues among military recruits and are associated with gastrointestinal symptoms. The preventive potential of brief psychological or relaxation interventions for new-onset depression, anxiety, or gastrointestinal complaints in recruits had not been clearly established. This prospective comparative study evaluated whether a short-term program combining progressive muscle relaxation with music could reduce the incidence of psychological problems and gastrointestinal symptoms in a recruit population.
The investigators prospectively screened 565 military recruits. Inclusion for the analytic cohort required absence of depression, anxiety, and gastrointestinal symptoms at baseline, defined using validated self-report instruments: the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (SAS), the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS), and normal stool form on the Bristol Stool Form Scale (BSFS). Based on the training company to which recruits were assigned, participants were placed either in the intervention group or in the control group. The intervention arm comprised 60 participants and the control arm comprised 99 participants. The study is reported as a comparative prospective design; the abstract does not provide further detail on allocation procedures, blinding, exclusions after screening, or adherence measures.
Participants assigned to the intervention group received a combined program of progressive muscle relaxation training together with a music intervention administered over 4 weeks. The control group received no psychological intervention during the study period. The abstract does not include precise details regarding the content, frequency, session length, or delivery modality (group vs individual) of the relaxation and music interventions, nor does it report monitoring of compliance.
Outcomes were assessed using four standardized instruments at three time points: baseline (prior to intervention), week 4 (upon completion of the 4-week psychological intervention), and week 6 (two weeks after completion). The instruments were:
The study used incidence of new depression, new anxiety, and new gastrointestinal symptoms as primary outcomes at week 4 and week 6.
At week 4 (end of the 4-week intervention):
At week 6 (two weeks after intervention completion):
Regarding gastrointestinal outcomes, the incidences of various gastrointestinal symptoms, including measures categorized as constipation and diarrhea based on the BSFS, did not differ significantly between the intervention and control groups at the assessed time points. The abstract reports no statistically significant differences across these measures.
The reported P values indicate no evidence of benefit of the combined relaxation-plus-music intervention for the prevention of new-onset depression, anxiety, or gastrointestinal symptoms in this cohort during the short follow-up window.
The authors conclude that progressive muscle relaxation training combined with music intervention "may not be effective" for preventing depression, anxiety, or gastrointestinal symptoms in military recruits under the conditions studied. The abstract highlights negative findings but provides limited methodological detail. Notably, the abstract does not report exact numbers screened versus enrolled beyond the initial 565 screened, methods of assignment other than by company, details on intervention delivery or participant adherence, sample size justification or power calculations, or safety/adverse event monitoring. These omissions constrain interpretation regarding whether the null findings reflect true lack of effect, insufficient intervention dose or fidelity, limited sample size for detection of small differences, short follow-up duration, or other design factors.
This study addresses a clinically relevant question about low-cost, nonpharmacologic prophylactic approaches for psychological and functional gastrointestinal problems in new military recruits. The use of validated self-report instruments (SDS, SAS, GSRS, BSFS) strengthens outcome ascertainment in the reported dataset. However, readers should consider the limited reporting in the abstract when interpreting results: specifics about intervention parameters, randomization or allocation details, attrition, adherence, and statistical power were not reported in the abstract. Those details would be required to fully evaluate internal validity and generalizability.
In this prospective comparative study with short follow-up, a 4-week program of progressive muscle relaxation combined with music did not significantly reduce the incidence of new depression, new anxiety, or new gastrointestinal symptoms among military recruits compared with no psychological intervention. The abstract states these null findings but lacks additional methodological detail needed to assess whether alternative implementation strategies or longer follow-up might yield different results.
(Study citation: Jun Liu et al., Med Sci Monit. 2026. PMID 42763415; DOI 10.12659/MSM.953585.)