The authors investigated the sociodemographic & clinical characteristics of 62 patients who were admitted to medical or surgical departments in a general hospital as a result of attempting suicide by jumping from buildings. All met criteria for at least 1 psychiatric diagnosis, the most frequent being schizophrenia, followed by depression. Most patients with schizophrenia presented active psychotic symptoms at the time of attempted suicide; depressive symptoms were present in only 6 of 25 patients with schizophrenia. (12 refs)