Out of 1,195 alcoholics treated in a psychiatric hospital during 1974-1986, 150 patients who died were examined. In 150 subjects, 86 natural deaths and 53 violent deaths were observed. Alcoholics who died from violent causes were hospitalized 10 years earlier and also died 10 years earlier than those of natural causes on the average. Furthermore, they failed more frequently to improve their drinking habits and their deaths tended to occur immediately after discharge. They were often single and of low economic status, and these social factors were considered to be closely related to their violent death.