The aim of this study was to scrutinize individual items as well as total scores of the Suicidal Intent Scale (SIS) in order to find out its usefulness for predicting suicide. Consecutive patients (N=555) were evaluated & rated with SIS shortly after a suicide attempt. When followed up at a mean time of 4.5 years, 22 (4%) had committed suicide. Those who later committed suicide had been scored significantly higher than those who did not commit suicide. A score of 19 was determined to be a possible predictor of future suicide. (24 refs)