The age, psychiatric condition, personality, intelligence, number of admissions and of suicidal attempts, civil state, social class, religion and the residential mobility of 45 male patients admitted after a suicidal attempt to Holywell Hospital (in Northern Ireland) in 1971 have been presented. The findings were compared with those in a group of 91 female patients admitted to the same hospital, for the same reason, in the same year. The results of the comparison showed a higher incidence of suicidal attempts in women, and a higher residential mobility. Otherwise there was no significant difference between these two groups in any of the fields investigated. Further, our study suggests that about two-thirds of the patients in both groups used their suicidal behaviour to manipulate their environment to their own advantage, and that most of them achieved their goals by this means. Thus the present investigation seems to confirm our hypothesis about the manipulative nature of the suicidal behaviour in a large proportion of cases.