Some researchers have attempted to connect suicide to a general history of mental illness; others have searched for diagnosis-free suicide risk factors; and still others have argued that different risk profiles may emerge for different diagnoses. In addition to these issues, it appears that suicide completers and suicide attempters show somewhat dissimilar patterns. This study explored several questions regarding suicide among psychiatric patients. Findings from 586 adolescent and young adult patients revealed that schizophrenics attempted suicide less but subsequently completed it more than other psychotics and nonpsychotics, giving schizophrenics a higher rate of completions to attempts than the other two diagnostic groups. Female patients generally attempted suicide more than did male patients, while male patients completed suicide more than did female patients. Suicide attempters were younger than nonattempters only in the nonpsychotic group. Suicide attempters were significantly more highly educated than nonattempters only for the nonpsychotic group. Suicide completers were generally more likely to have never married than were suicide attempters; had lower social competence and greater drug abuse than either attempters or nonattempters; and showed a trend toward more alcohol abuse than nonattempters. Finally, attempters generally showed better premorbid functioning than did nonattempters or completers. (NB)