Understanding brain function is key to the prevention and recovery from brain disorders, such as psychiatric illnesses. The Boston CIDAR study, "Longitudinal Assessment and Monitoring of Clinical Status and Brain Function in Adolescents and Adults", is dedicated to increasing the understanding of the risk factors and development of schizophrenia by studying participants who are at various stages of the disorder; clinical high risk, first episode and long-term/persistent, as well as healthy, non-affected individuals (controls). This study aims to obtain a broad perspective and database on biological markers and predictors of development and progression of the disorder by linking clinical, cognitive, neuroimaging, electrophysiological, and hormonal markers to the understanding of how the underlying neural circuits and genes may be altered.

This study has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Center for Intervention Development and Applied Research (CIDAR) funding mechanism (P50). The study had its origin in 2005 in the Longwood Study of Psychosis consortium initiated by the CIDAR PI and consisting of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital and VA Boston Healthcare System. In the course of planning the CIDAR submission for June 2006, with BIDMC as the lead institution, other Harvard- affiliated institutions listed in the investigators' biosketches were recruited. Only two of these program project grants are awarded each year, and we are very pleased to have been selected to conduct this study.