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With approximately 20 per cent of all prescriptions written for psychotropic drugs, a large proportion of which are tranquilizers, it becomes necessary to examine the consequences of such use and the functions served by these drugs in social as well as pharmacological terms. This paper reports data from an exploratory study of the social and behavioural effects of use based on group interviews with current and former tranquilizer users. It adopts a natural history approach. The informants reflected the age and sex distribution of tranquilizer users generally, predominantly female and middle-aged. The thematic material dealt largely with a variety of role conflicts. Discussion focussed on these conflicts and the individual's ability to perform expected roles or adapt to them. Among females the roles included those of wife, mother, and houseworker, while males primarily discussed tranquilizer use as a means of controlling somatic symptoms in order to perform their occupational role. The function of tranquilizers in maintaining the individual in a dependent patient role was also discussed by a number of informants. This study demonstrates the inadequacy of the biomedical model of disease in explaining continued tranquUiser use.

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