THE  Connection project – Minds of the Future  is derived from the National Institute of Developmental Psychiatry (INPD), from the public notice issued by the Institute of Science and Technology & Innovation (INCT) of the CNPq. It is a multicenter study (Federal University of São Paulo - UNIFESP; Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - UFRGS; and Faculty of Medicine of the University of São Paulo - FMUSP) whose main objective is to seek environmental, genetic, biochemical, neuropsychological and neuroimaging in order to investigate risk and protective factors that may inform negative and positive outcomes related to mental health in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

The Connection project consists of a community cohort of children and adolescents enriched for psychiatric disorders. 2,512 children from state schools in Porto Alegre and São Paulo participated in this cohort, recruited at school age between 6 and 12 years. Demographic, clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging information and blood samples were collected from children and adolescents at different stages of follow-up, classified as follows:

Phase 0 - baseline (individuals aged 6 to 14 years)

Stage 1 (individuals aged 9 to 18 years)

Phase 2 (individuals 12-21 years old; ongoing)

Phase 3 (individuals aged 15 to 24, expected)

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The psychiatric diagnostic interview was structured using the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) scale, which is based on the DSM-IV, and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) child psychopathology scale. In this project, the presence of different psychiatric diagnoses is observed, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). ), between others.