Studied 53 male & 92 female 20-29 yr old attempters. Ratings of medical lethality of the suicide attempt with coma-producing drugs were unrelated to the attempter’s personal traits, precipitating circumstances & most circumstances of the act. As the attempter might incorrectly predict the lethality of his planned attempt, the self-report of intent may be more useful for classification of his behavior than the actual lethality of the suicidal action. Impossible to hypothesize on completers.