Background: A sizable amount of individuals in the community are presented with various kinds of physical and mental health problems which are either undetected, untreated or inadequately treated, due to the limitations on the availability and accessibility of the services in the existing health care system, or to other social and personal reasons. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a newly developed modality of health-enhancing treatment---the Mindfulness-based Dejian Mind-Body Intervention, as compared to that of a Group Psychoeducational Treatment, in alleviating depressive mood and improving physical health of adult individuals in the community. Conclusions: Findings of the current study suggest that compared with the Group Psychoeducational Treatment, Dejian Mind-Body Intervention might be more effective in enhancing the emotional and physical health of community individuals presented with moderate to severe depressive mood and/or problems with bowel functioning. Method: Forty adult volunteers with various degree of depressive mood and physical problems who expressed interest in receiving either Dejian Mind-Body Intervention or Group Psychoeducational Treatment were recruited in the current study. They were matched for gender, age, education and level of depression, and were randomly assigned to either treatment group. Results: Both the Dejian Mind-Body Intervention and Group Psychoeducation Treatment were effective in bringing about a significant reduction in depressive mood iv among treatment completers. However, differential effectiveness emerged among those presented with moderate to severe depressive mood, where Dejian Mind-Body Intervention resulted in significantly greater treatment-related reduction in depressive mood compared with the Group Psychoeducational Treatment. Besides, Dejian Mind-Body Intervention brought about significant increase in an objective QEEG measure of positive affect, and improvements in physical health (i.e., bowel functioning) that were not evidenced in the Group Psychoeducation Treatment.
