Brazilian High Risk Cohort (BHRC)
Brazilian High Risk Cohort Study for Childhood Psychiatric Disorders
Longitudinal brain MRI (T1w, diffusion, resting-state and task fMRI) of 1,321 young people from a school-based cohort in São Paulo and Porto Alegre enriched for risk of mental disorders, scanned in up to four waves from 2010 to 2025, with linked psychiatric and genetic data.
Overview
The Brazilian High Risk Cohort Study (BHRC) follows 2,511 children and their families recruited through schools in São Paulo and Porto Alegre since 2010. A screening of 9,937 children at 57 schools was used to draw a random community subsample (958) and a high-risk subsample (1,554) selected for psychiatric symptoms and family history of mental disorders. Part of the cohort was scanned with MRI at baseline and at follow-ups, and the imaging data can be linked to psychiatric assessments, cognition and genetic data. Data are shared to approved research proposals.
Composition
The imaging sample covers 1,321 probands with at least one scan: 743 at Wave 0 (2010 to 2012, mean age 10.7), 466 at Wave 1 (2014 to 2016), 418 at Wave 2 (2018 to 2020) and 828 at Wave 3 (2023 to 2025, mean age 24.0). Of the 1,321, 710 are male and 611 female, 787 come from the high-risk subsample and 534 from the random subsample. Lifetime diagnoses from the DAWBA interview include anxiety disorders (457), depression (374) and ADHD (267). Wave 3 also scanned parents of the probands, who are not counted here.
Acquisition
Waves 0 to 2 were scanned at two sites, INRAD in São Paulo and Hospital Dom Vicente Scherer in Porto Alegre, on 1.5 T scanners; the design paper names a 1.5 T General Electric scanner for baseline. These waves include a 3D T1-weighted image, diffusion MRI and resting-state fMRI, plus magnetization transfer images in Waves 0 and 1 and FLAIR in Wave 2. Wave 3 used 3 T scanners at four sites and acquired T1w, T2w, three resting-state runs, movie and eye-tracking calibration task fMRI and field maps. The data are organized in BIDS, converted with dcm2niix and defaced with mideface. fMRIPrep, FreeSurfer and MRIQC derivatives are provided for structural and functional scans.
Known limitations
- Only a subset of the cohort was invited to imaging in Waves 0 to 2, so the scanned sample shrinks and then grows across waves.
- Field strength, sites and protocols changed between Waves 0 to 2 and Wave 3.
- Diffusion, magnetization transfer and FLAIR images are released raw only.
- The vendor of the Wave 1 to 3 scanners is not stated in the sources.
- The Data Transfer Agreement text is not public, so permitted uses cannot be checked before applying.
Cohort
Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 1,321 subjects.
Sex
- Male 710 54%
- Female 611 46%
Age
mean 23.3± 2.6No age bins reported.
Condition
subjects, values can overlap
- Anxiety disorder 457 35%
- Major depressive disorder 374 28%
- ADHD 267 20%
- Post-traumatic stress disorder 104 8%
- Eating disorder 61 5%
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder 41 3%
- Bipolar disorder 22 2%
- Psychotic disorder 5 <1%
Field strength
subjects
- 3 T 828 63%
Country
subjects
- Brazil 1,321 100%
License and access
Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer
A research proposal is reviewed and approved
Researchers register on the BHRC data portal with an institutional email, submit a proposal naming the variables they need, and after approval by the review committee have a Data Transfer Agreement signed by their institution. Access lasts one year and can be renewed. The BIDS imaging dataset is requested in the proposal's "Additional Data Needs" section.
No published license or data use terms
The data holder has published no license and no data use terms. Any use, sharing or commercial right has to be agreed with the data holder, and nothing can be assumed to be allowed. Default copyright and data protection law still apply.
Access is governed by a Data Transfer Agreement that approved applicants download from the portal. Its text is not published, and neither the portal nor the OSF project states a license for the data.
What you can do
- Commercial use Not stated
- Train ML models Not stated
- Create derived data Not stated
- Publish results Not stated
What you can share
- Share the data Not stated
- Share derived data Not stated
- Share trained models Not stated
What you must do
- Cite or credit Not stated
- Share alike Not stated
- Sign an agreement Not stated
- Ethics approval Not stated
- Manuscript review Not stated
- Release code Not stated
- Return results Not stated
- Delete after use Not stated
Limits
- No re-identification Not stated
- Location limits Not stated
Citation
Salum GA, Gadelha A, Pan PM, et al. High risk cohort study for psychiatric disorders in childhood: rationale, design, methods and preliminary results. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research 24(1):58-73 (2015). doi:10.1002/mpr.1459
All numbers
Every number on this page, as stored in stats.csv, with its source.
| Measure | Breakdown | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects | total probands with neuroimaging data at any wave; parents scanned in Wave 3 are not included | 1,321 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
| Studies | total sum of the per-wave samples (Wave 0 743, Wave 1 466, Wave 2 418, Wave 3 828), one imaging session per participant and wave | 2,455 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table |
| Subjects | sex=male sex at birth | 710 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
| Subjects | sex=female sex at birth | 611 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
| Subjects | country=BR São Paulo (666) and Rio Grande do Sul (655) | 1,321 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, State |
| Subjects | field_strength=3 Wave 3 probands; Waves 0 to 2 used 1.5 T scanners | 828 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Sections 10.2 and 10.3.2 |
| Subjects | condition=adhd lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 267 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=anxiety_disorder lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave, any anxiety disorder | 457 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=depression lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 374 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=ocd lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 41 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=ptsd lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 104 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=eating_disorder lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 61 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=bipolar_disorder reported as bipolar disorder or mania, lifetime at any wave | 22 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Subjects | condition=psychotic_disorder lifetime DSM-IV diagnosis by DAWBA at any wave | 5 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2.2, Lifetime column |
| Mean age | total age at each participant's most recent imaging assessment | 23.3 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
| Age SD | total age at each participant's most recent imaging assessment | 2.6 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
| Median age | total age at each participant's most recent imaging assessment | 23.5 | bhrc-guide-neuroimaging Section 10.2, Demographic Characteristics table, Overall |
Sources
The keys used in the table above.
- salum2015 Salum et al. 2015, International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research paper
- bhrc-data-portal BHRC Data Portal, home page website
- bhrc-osf BHRC OSF project and wiki website
- bhrc-guide-neuroimaging BHRC Research Data Guide, chapter 10 BHRC neuroimaging data (last updated March 16, 2026) website