A group of children under 16 years of age who had been admitted to hospital after deliberate self-poisoning were followed up after 1 year. Almost half of the subjects had improved, but the remaining children continued disturbed. 10% of children had been involved in further self-poisoning episodes. Extended follow-up after 7 years indicated that the repetition rate for self-poisoning was 20% although the majority of these episodes had occurred within a year of the index event. (12 refs.)