The Effect of Group Support Psychotherapy Delivered by Trained Lay Health Workers for Depression Treatment Among People with HIV in Uganda: Protocol of a Pragmatic, Cluster Randomized Trial

Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu   ^{1 *} , MMED(Psych), PhD ;   Seggane Musisi   ^{1 *} , FRCP(C) ;   Kizito Wamala   ^{2 *} , MSc ;   James Okello   ^{3 *} , MMED(Psych), PhD ;   Sheila Ndyanabangi   ^{4 *} , MBChB, MPH ;   Ramin Mojtabai   ^{5 *} , MD, PhD ;   Jean Nachega   ^{6, 7, 8, 9 *} , MD, PhD ;   Ofir Harari   ^{10 *} , PhD ;   Edward Mills   ^{11 *} , PhD

¹ Department of Psychiatry, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda

² Department of Psychology, Center for Victims of Torture, Gulu, Uganda

³ Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda

⁴ Mental Health Program, Ministry of Health of Uganda, Kampala, Uganda

⁵ Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg's School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States

⁶ Department of Epidemiology, Pittsburg Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburg, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

⁷ Stellenbosch Center for Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa

⁸ Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg's School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States

⁹ Department of International Health, Bloomberg's School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States

¹⁰ MTEK Sciences Inc, Vancouver, BC, Canada

¹¹ Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

*all authors contributed equally