Introduction
anger, anxiety disorder, Depression, anxiety, (sub)threshold mental disorders, depressive, various mental disorders, disability
SECONDARY, DISEASES, DISORDERS
Mental disorders are common and rank among the top causes and risks for years lived with disability around the world. They relate not only to individual impairments but also to tremendous societal costs [Cognitive-behavioral models suggest that psychophysiological tension plays an important role in a cascade of symptoms that reinforce each other and can result in full-threshold mental disorders over time [A well-known relaxation technique is Applied Relaxation (AR). Originally developed to treat anxiety disorders, it is conceptualized as a behavioral coping technique that enables individuals to rapidly relax within 20 to 30 seconds as soon as the first signs of tension or stress appear [As single treatment or part of a multimodal program, AR has been shown to effectively reduce depressive, anxiety, stress, or somatic symptoms in the context of various mental disorders and physical diseases. For instance, AR reduced anxiety symptoms in patients with generalized anxiety disorder [A randomized controlled trial recently investigated whether AR lowers existing psychopathological symptoms and thus prospectively prevents the onset of subthreshold and full-threshold mental disorders in the following months [The conventional questionnaires at the respective main assessment revealed that the primary (21-item short-form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, DASS-21) and secondary (depressive, anxiety, anger, and somatic symptoms as well as sleep disturbances assessed with the DSM-5 Level 2 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measures) outcomes of the intervention efficacy improved more in the intervention group than in the control group from baseline to post. However, these group effects did not persist until follow-up. That is, AR led to accelerated improvements in various psychopathological symptoms. In addition, a reduction of incident (sub)threshold mental disorders as primary outcome of the prevention efficacy was observed.