ASHA Bangladesh--An Integrated Intervention to Address Poverty and Depression

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to compare the impact of an integrated intervention combining poverty alleviation and depression treatment to depression treatment alone, in low income rural Bangladeshi women with depression. The main question[s] it aims to answer are whether adding poverty alleviation to depression treatment in an integrated intervention: 1) improves depression outcomes at 6 months post baseline as measured by changes in the PHQ-9 from baseline; 2) reduces the chance of relapse (PHQ-9 >=10) at 24 months among patients who remitted (PHQ-9>=5) at six months; and 2) whether adding poverty alleviation to depression treatment improves implementation outcomes including treatment uptake and retention. Participants in both arms will participate in research interviews at 6,12 and 24 months.