Data on suicide & parasuicide for 1974-1978 were collected from police records & compared with a similar study carried out 15 years previously. The differences in the pattern of suicide & parasuicide found were: the suicide rates had fallen considerably & the parasuicide rates remained more or less the same; more younger people under the age of 20 & more females had completed suicide than before; more victims were using insecticides & tablets as compared to the late fifties & early sixties. Domestic troubles remained the most common reason for suicide & parasuicide in both studies. (5 refs.)