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A questionnaire was developed to help the assessment of patients who take overdoses. Twenty-four house physicians in Southampton university hospitals were randomly divided into a group who used the questionnaire and another group who asked whatever questions they felt appropriate. One hundred and fifty patients who had taken overdoses were included in the study. After the house physician's assessment, a research assistant interviewed all of the patients and the two assessments for each patient were then compared. There was greater agreement between the research assistant and the house physicians who used the questionnaire than those who interviewed patients in an unstructured way with respect to assessments of severity of depression, purpose of the act, suicidal intent, diagnosis, and future management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]