A case report of a 37-year-old woman with Munchausen syndrome which differs in many respects from the classical picture is described. Attempts are made to examine the motives behind the syndrome and to make a link with the common pattern of deliberate self-harm.

A man presenting with factitious alcohol abuse and its alleged complications is described. It is argued that chronic factitious disorders are more logically viewed as part of that spectrum of conditions where there is abnormal illness behaviour, including somatoform disorders and other related conditions, than as separate nosological or diagnostic entities.

A total of 328 patients were admitted for deliberate self harm (DSH) to the General Hospital Jaffna, Sri Lanka, during the year 1984. Twenty-two of these patients succumbed to their injuries. Information about these patients collected before death, and their methods of suicide, are reported.