In order to meet a long expressed need for a longitudinal study on personal adjustment to traumatic spinal cord injury, 17 consecutively treated persons with complete traumatic spinal cord injury were interviewed 0.5-5 years after the injury on six occasions, with a total of 102 interviews. The variables studied were age at injury, social status, the cause of the accident, spinal level of injury and physical complications. The subjective quality of life (QOL) was reported on a 0-10 scale at all interviews and showed four patterns during the 5 year period. Five subjects reported that they were coping very well, with an almost unchanged QOL after the injury. Six reported good coping after an initially low QOL in the first years. Two subjects reported an unstable QOL, and four persons reported a continually low QOL without improvement. Variables related to unsatisfactory coping were severe pain, age above 35 years at the time of trauma, and being blameless for the accident.