22 suicides were identified in a series of 5,284 psychiatric emergency room patients, yielding a suicide rate of 111.1 per 100,000 “patient-years at risk”–more than 7 times the age & sex-adjusted rate for the general population. High risk subpopulations were whites, men, depressed & schizophrenic patients, substance abusers & patients with multiple emergency room visits. No patient killed themselves immediately after an emergency room visit. Authors discuss implications of these findings.