Life table analysis was used to determine the incidence of treatment termination in rheumatoid arthritis patients after initial therapeutic courses of gold (93) and antimalarial compounds (101). Patients treated with antimalarial compounds tended to terminate treatment sooner than those receiving gold. The most common reasons for discontinuing antimalarial therapy were lack of initial benefit and loss of response to the drug. Clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients at onset of therapy did not influence failure rates to a great extent.