Change My Story Task Shifted Mental Health Intervention
Change My Story: Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial of Change My Story Among Young Persons Living With HIV and Depression
Massachusetts General Hospital
80 participants
Jun 1, 2025
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
Psychological distress and depression are common among young people living with HIV (Y-PLWH) and negatively impact medication adherence and disease control. In low- and middle-income countries, this problem is compounded by the lack of trained mental health professionals on the provider side and the requirement of frequent clinic-based visits imposing greater cost, inconvenience, and stigma for patients. Change My Story, is a theory-grounded, interactive narrative game designed to address the key drivers of depression and psychological distress among Y-PLWH in Nigeria. This pilot hybrid implementation-effectiveness randomized controlled trial (RCT) will compare Change My Story combined with PST to PST alone among 80 Y-PLWH with depression or psychological distress.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria4
- HIV-positive
- age 16-24 years
- self-reported proficiency in reading and understanding English.
- PHQ9 score of 8-17 and impairment in functioning (consistent with clinical depression)
Exclusion Criteria3
- pregnant or nursing
- in care and on ART for \<6 months
- history of- or positive assessment for- bipolar or psychotic disorder.
Interventions
Problem solving therapy (PST) is a cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)-based intervention that uses seven basic steps to teach problem solving orientation and skills to equip individuals to manage the impact of stressful life events on their mental health.
Change My Story is a narrative game with a choose-your-own-adventure format in which players navigate emotionally difficult experiences along with the character(s) and interact with the virtual environment to choose a narrative path toward the story's conclusion. It will used to address important obstacles in the mental health treatment gap for Y-PLWH.
Locations(1)
View Full Details on ClinicalTrials.gov
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NCT06389565