Streamlined Treatment and Evidence-based Adolescent Counseling and Medication Support (STREAMS) (STREAMS)

June 4, 2026 updated by: Philip Kreniske, City University of New York, School of Public Health
Combination interventions to address mental health and adherence to HIV care in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), are crucial to achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets as one in four adolescents living with HIV (ALWHIV) experience poor mental health and this contributes to suboptimal medication adherence and lack of viral suppression. Yet few evidence-based mental health and adherence interventions have been evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the region where the majority of the 1.7 million ALWHIV reside. STREAMS will determine if our streamlined combination intervention approach to mental health screening, provision of evidence-based interpersonal psychotherapy groups (IPT-G), and evidence-based family strengthening, and medication counseling is feasible and efficacious for ALWHIV in Uganda.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
588

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Living with HIV with confirmation by medical report and aware of their status
  • Living within a family (defined broadly, not necessarily with biological parents); - - Between the ages of 15 to 19 years
  • Prescribed ART
  • Score a 10 or greater on the PHQ-9

Exclusion Criteria:

  • an inability to understand study procedures and participant rights as assessed during informed consent/assent process with the adolescent or caregiver.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: streamlined IPT-G with streamlined Suubi+Adherence
Streamlined IPT-G (6 weeks) one 90-min StrongMinds group counseling session per week & Suubi+Adherence (36 weeks)
Behavioral: Streamlined Suubi+Adherence

Participants in this intervention arm will receive:

  • Financial literacy training
  • Youth savings accounts The intervention aims to strengthen economic stability and support long-term treatment adherence and psychosocial well-being.
Behavioral: Streamlined Interpersonal Psychotherapy Groups (IPT-G)
  • Participants in the IPT-G intervention arms will attend:
  • Six weekly group counseling sessions,
  • Conducted in groups of approximately 6-10 adolescents,
  • Facilitated by trained StrongMinds counselors.

The sessions will focus on:

  • Emotional wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Coping with stress
  • Grief and loss
  • Social support
  • Problem-solving skills
Experimental: streamlined IPT-G with SOC ART counseling
Streamlined IPT-G (6 weeks) as described above & Standard Of Care (SOC) ART counseling (8 weeks) individual 30-min counseling sessions once per week
Behavioral: Streamlined Interpersonal Psychotherapy Groups (IPT-G)
  • Participants in the IPT-G intervention arms will attend:
  • Six weekly group counseling sessions,
  • Conducted in groups of approximately 6-10 adolescents,
  • Facilitated by trained StrongMinds counselors.

The sessions will focus on:

  • Emotional wellbeing
  • Relationships
  • Coping with stress
  • Grief and loss
  • Social support
  • Problem-solving skills
No Intervention: SOC mental health counseling with SOC ART counseling.
Receive treatment per Uganda national guidelines Standard Of Care (SOC) Mental Health Counseling (6-weeks) delivered by HIV clinic staff in 60-min sessions once per week and SOC ART counseling (8-weeks).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Depressive symptomatology
Time Frame: Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation
PHQ-9, a standardized 9-item self-report instrument used to assess depression, is used. Participants rate the frequency of their symptoms over the past 2 weeks. Items are rated on a 4-point scale, ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day), and scale scores range from 0 to 27. PHQ-9 scores of 5 to 9 represent minimal to mild depression and 10 to 20 represent moderate to severe depression. A score ≥10 has a sensitivity of 88% and a specificity of 88% for major depression.
Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Viral Load
Time Frame: Baseline to 12-months post intervention initiation
Viral Load (VL) Suppression (Biological assay) will be assessed through blood draws. In accordance with in-country cutoffs, VL will be dichotomized between undetectable (< 200 copies/ml) and detectable (≥ 200 copies/ml) levels.
Baseline to 12-months post intervention initiation

Other Outcome Measures

Other Outcome Measures

For clinical trials, a planned measurement described in the protocol that is used to determine the effect of an intervention/treatment on participants. For observational studies, a measurement or observation that is used to describe patterns of diseases or traits, or associations with exposures, risk factors, or treatment. Types of outcome measures include primary outcome measure and secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Anxiety
Time Frame: Baseline to 24-months post intervention initiation
The GAD-7 is a standardized instrument that asks participants to rate their symptoms over the past two weeks on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (nearly every day). Overall scores for the GAD-7 range from 0 to 21. At a cut-point of 10 (indicative of clinically significant symptoms), the sensitivity and specificity of the scale equals 89% and 82% respectively. The GAD-7 has a Cronbach's of .92, indicating good internal consistency with an intra-class correlation of .83, indicating good procedural validity.
Baseline to 24-months post intervention initiation
Adherence measurement
Time Frame: Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation
The three-item Self-reported ART adherence measure used in prior Suubi studies
Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation
General functioning
Time Frame: Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation
Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS)136, an adaptation of the Global Assessment Scale for adults, young people scored between 1 to 100, with 10 categories. Participants with CGAS score of 1-10 needs constant supervision, with scores of 91-100 means superior functioning. CGAS can be a useful measure of overall severity of disturbance. It was found to have moderate to good reliability between raters and across time, as measured by intraclass correlation
Baseline to 24 months post-intervention initiation

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
City University of New York, School of Public Health

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
New York University
Washington University Bursky School of Public Health

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
December 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
December 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
August 1, 2030

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
June 4, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 4, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
June 9, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
June 9, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
June 4, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • R01MH140406 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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