The practicing physician is the front line of defense against suicide. Most suicides consult physicians before their suicide, and an awareness of high risk populations and their methods might alert physicians so that prevention is possible. We sampled practicing physicians and found a mixture of knowledge and ignorance, but more important, a high level of expressed interest in improving knowledge and attitudes. The major errors in knowledge were in not knowing the population at greatest risk (86% of these physicians erred) and the most frequent single method used (82% of these physicians erred). Ninety-one percent of these physicians thought that their knowledge was insufficient and 70% were seriously interested in learning more. Clearly, graduate and postgraduate education are indicated. The best source of knowledge and of influence on attitudes according to these physicians were books and journals.