366 charts are reviewed of patients admitted to the ICU of the Lausanne University Department of Medicine during 5 consecutive years for psychotropic drug overdose and treated by supportive management. 25% were severely intoxicated and 46 patients required ventilatory support either for aspiration pneumonia or CNS depression. The mortality rate was 0.5% and mean stay in the ICU 2.8 days. Neither the two deaths nor the complications (already established upon admission or within 6 hours of presentation) could have been prevented by hemoperfusion. The efficiency of conservative management raises questions about the value of extrarenal clearance technics in the absence of concurrent renal failure.