Suicidal attempts among the elderly constitute up to 5% of the total number of suicidal attempts. Many biological, psychological and sociological factors contribute to suicidal reactions, especially among the older generation. The authors performed clinical and toxicological analysis of acute poisonings among the elderly population, inhabitants of urban and rural areas, provided with inpatient treatment in the Toxicology Clinic at the Institute of Agricultural Medicine in Lublin during the period 1999-2005. The study was expanded by psychological-psychiatric examination of the attitudes of people who had undertaken a suicidal attempt. The causes of suicidal poisonings were mainly psychotropic drugs, sometimes in combination with ethyl alcohol. The most frequent motivation was depression preceeding poisoning, as well as confl ict situations in a family, at home, and in the environment. In the presented material concerning suicidal attempts among the elderly, psychosomatic diseases were dominant, both in rural and urban environments of the region.