Attempted suicide is a behavioural pattern with complex psychological and sociological determinants, many of which have been extensively studied in recent years. The basic facts of its changing incidence, its demography, and its place within a broader spectrum of self-destructive behaviour are well established but authorities are still divided on many issues related to its aetiology, its function in the individual and the kinds of services required for its clinical management. (Kessel 1965, Anderson 1974, Weissman 1974, Henderson and Williams 1974). The study reported here was designed partly to define the characteristics of a group of patients for whom clinical services were being planned and partly as a pilot study to develop a methodology for a more extensive controlled study which we hope to carry out next year. The preliminary findings are sufficiently interesting to report now.