A total of 1600 patients suffering from depression and anxiety was treated in one consultant practice over an 8-year period. In most cases, the depressive component was treated by monoamine oxidase inhibitors, but oxazepam was used as the anxiolytic in all cases in the series. Patients were encouraged to regulate their own dosage of oxazepam, and no difficulties occurred with this technique. The results showed the overall effectiveness of oxazepam as an anxiolytic to be better than 87% in those cases where depression co-existed.