The authors note that although the psychiatric hospitals is often used as a means of preventing the suicide of disturbed patients, some hospitalized patients succeed in committing suicide; such as an event is distressing for hospital staffs as well as for patients and families. However, the authors believe that the occasional occurrence of in-hospital suicide is inevitable. They present data on the frequency and characteristics of suicides among hospitalized psychiatric patients in Los Angeles County during the period from 1967 to 1972.?23AUTHOR