A comparison has been made between persons aged 50 and over dying from suicide and a matched control group of persons dying from other violent causes with respect to the incidence of malignant neoplasms and benign intracranial tumours found at autopsy. Significantly more of the suicide cases were found to have cancer, meningiomas and benign pituitary tumours. The implications of this finding and the relationship between depression and neoplasia are discussed.