SummaryThis paper outlines a sociological approach to benzodiazepine tranquillizer prescribing. The analysis focuses on both the micro level of the doctor‐patient relationship and the macro level of those political, economic and cultural factors which structure the prescribing process. This makes it possible to account for both the overall decline in benzodiazepine prescriptions in the 1980's and the fact that they are still being prescribed on a long‐term basis to ‘a significant number of pe