During a 5-year follow-up of 154 male and female patients treated for alcoholism at the Donwood Institute, 22 deaths were recorded-almost 4 times the expected number. Typical causes were accidents, suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, cancer and ischemic heart disease. Compared with other samples of alcoholics, unusually few deaths occurred during the first 2 years of follow-up, which suggests the importance of the post-treatment attention given patients and the need to extend aftercare.