The mental health graduate program (PPGSM) of the Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto – University of São Paulo (FMRP-USP) was established in 1991 with the multidisciplinarity as one of its main characteristics. The program was conceived to receive graduate students from different areas of Mental Health including Medicine, Psychology, Nursing, Occupational Therapy and Social Work among others with the purpose of breaking the vicious circle that had settled in some careers in mental health which had insufficient critical mass at the time to consolidate their own programs.

The faculty consisted of doctors and psychologists of the Department of Neuroscience and Behavioral Sciences of FMRP-USP as well as by professors from other units of USP-Ribeirão Preto, aiming to build solid graduate programs.The overall objective of the program is to train qualified personnel to conduct research projects, and train them in research lines aimed at identifying and controlling risk factors, conditions of biological and psychosocial vulnerability and the physiopathogeny of psychiatric disorders.Through the study of diseases the program strives to find better preventive solutions and better understanding of the main processes of psychopathological manifestations.