The objective of the study is the analysis and the description of patients who committed autolitic acts and were attended in a mental health hospital unit in 2014.

We analyze the patient registry for the attended emergencies in our mental health hospital unit, extracting the following variables: gender distribution, age range, type of method applied in the attempt and diagnosis based on DSM-IV TR.

The study reveals a larger share of autolitic acts in the feminine population between 14 and 69 years old. A total of 31 patients needed to be attended in an emergency hospital unit (11.74%). The most common method is the medical substance abuse (23 patients, 74.19% from the admitted patients in our Mental Health Hospitalary Unit). The diagnoses in order of frequency were; affective disorders (13 patients, 41.93%), personality disorders (8 patients, 25.80%), adaptative disorders (7 patients, 22.58%) and psychotics disorders (3 patients, 9.68%).

Our population-based sample confirms the epidemiologic data found in the consulted literature as well as in other population groups.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.