The deceased included 26 persons who had both alcoholism and drug use disorders and 35 persons who had alcoholism only. All 61 had informants who knew their functional and symptomatic status during their last week of life. The dependent variables included demographics, suicidal behavior, psychiatric symptoms, and medical illnesses. Analyses controlled for age and gender and revealed that alcoholics without drug disorders were more likely than the other group to have had a comorbid major depression and less likely to tell someone that they were contemplating suicide. The scores on a measure of medical illness burden increased with age among the alcoholic group but not among with group with both alcoholism and drug disorders, although the latter more were likely to be under a physician's care with increasing age. Findings suggested that these differences should be considered when designing suicide prevention approaches. Tables and 22 references (Author abstract modified)