diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 2be74441a27..69f0b47d1be 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ Ben Webb
 Benjamin Peterson
 Bernard Pratz
 Bob Ippolito
+Brian Choi (bkjchoi72)
 Brian Dorsey
 Brian Maissy
 Brian Okken
diff --git a/changelog/3823.bugfix.rst b/changelog/3823.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..94fa226c35d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/3823.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fixed the ``--trace`` option so that it works with unittest test cases.
diff --git a/src/_pytest/unittest.py b/src/_pytest/unittest.py
index a2fd6ad5afe..66ab1e97282 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/unittest.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/unittest.py
@@ -182,6 +182,8 @@ def _handle_skip(self):
         return False
 
     def runtest(self):
+        if self.config.pluginmanager.get_plugin("pdbtrace"):
+            self.ihook.pytest_pyfunc_call(pyfuncitem=self)
         if self.config.pluginmanager.get_plugin("pdbinvoke") is None:
             self._testcase(result=self)
         else:
diff --git a/testing/test_pdb.py b/testing/test_pdb.py
index 246f514b4a9..c01a4af8723 100644
--- a/testing/test_pdb.py
+++ b/testing/test_pdb.py
@@ -753,3 +753,21 @@ def test_1():
         assert "1 passed" in rest
         assert "reading from stdin while output" not in rest
         TestPDB.flush(child)
+
+    def test_unittest_using_trace_invokes_pdb(self, testdir):
+        p1 = testdir.makepyfile(
+            """
+            import unittest
+            class Test1(unittest.TestCase):
+                def test_1(self):
+                    assert True
+            """
+        )
+        child = testdir.spawn_pytest("--trace " + str(p1))
+        child.expect("test_1")
+        child.expect("(Pdb)")
+        child.sendeof()
+        rest = child.read().decode("utf8")
+        assert "1 passed" in rest
+        assert "reading from stdin while output" not in rest
+        TestPDB.flush(child)