In spite of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal support, American suicide prevention centers have not succeeded in lowering the suicide rate. It is hypothesized that this failure to prevent suicide stems in large measure from the statistically significant differences between completed suicides and suicidal patients. American suicide prevention centers are simply not contacting those persons with high suicide potential. As a result of the present investigation it is concluded specifically that completed suicides are more likely to be male, old, married, to have come from fewer broken homes, to be more independent, less active socially, in poorer physical health, more successful vocationally, and to have made fewer, more lethal suicide attempts than the patients. Thus, if one wants to lower the suicide rate, the intervention services of the suicide prevention center must be redesigned to accommodate the life-style of the completed suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]