The Friendship Bench Plus Trial

The goal of this randomised controlled trial is to enhance the Friendship Bench intervention with antidepressants in adults with moderate to severe depression. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Is the combination of the Friendship Bench with nurse-led antidepressants prescribing superior to the Friendship Bench alone? 2. What are the barriers and enablers for the prescription of antidepressants by nurses in primary care? Type of study: Randomized controlled superiority trial Participants will be randomly selected and allocated into the control arm or intervention arm. Participants in the control arm will receive six sessions of the Friendship Bench Problem Solving Therapy while those in the intervention arm will receive the Friendship Bench intervention plus Fluoxetine (Sertraline for breastfeeding women).

NCT Number	NCT06384209
Lead Sponsor	University of Bern Collaborators: University of Zimbabwe, Swiss National Science Foundation
Conditions	Major Depressive Disorder, Severe Depressive Episode Without Psychotic Symptoms
Enrollment	296 participants
Start Date	2025-06-26
Primary Completion	2027-12-28 (estimated)
Study Completion	2028-02-28 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2025-11-20