To the Editor.—Ìý The report by Swartz and Dunner in the November issue (Archives 1982;39:1309-1312) confirms the need for careful screening of patients by clinicians who wish to use the dexamethasone suppression test (DST) as a laboratory aid in the diagnosis of melancholia.^1-3 Swartz and Dunner provide a second data base on the interference of alcoholism with the DST, first described by Oxenkrug.⁴ Their report serves to emphasize the caution necessary when dealing with this problem, as we stated in our report on the standardization of the DST.¹Swartz and Dunner failed to acknowledge that we listed acute withdrawal from alcohol as one of the medical exclusion criteria for the DST.¹ They also wrongly implied that we reported normal DST results in alcoholics. They stated: "In some reports... all alcoholic patients showed normal results." An attentive reading of our report will reveal that no alcoholics were