The articles emphasize the need for a multidisciplinary approach in order to understand the complexity of such long-term use. The papers base their arguments on psychological, sociological, anthropological, clinical, and social pharmacy perspectives. Various disciplines focus on certain topics; for example, psychology can help in understanding the kinds of mental processes that are involved in the development of long-term tranquilizer use. Sociology, anthropology, and social pharmacy have a particular contribution in the effort to understand the social meanings of psychotropic drug use. The first paper focuses on the psychology of long-term tranquilizer use, followed by a paper that offers a psychodynamic perspective on long-term tranquilizer use. The third paper highlights 100 psychotropic users' explanations of their drug use, and the fourth paper reports on the evaluation of programs for the treatment of benzodiazepine dependency. A sociological account of long-term psychotropic drug use is presented in the fifth paper, followed by a paper that examines mass media representations as sources of drug information for patients. Remaining papers analyze how to balance diversion control and medical necessity in dealing with the abuse of prescription drugs; present a theoretical model for understanding the meaning of various personal and psychosocial facts that can contribute to the development of long-term use of narcotics; provide an integrated analysis of dependency problems; and present an overview of this issue's implications for future research, treatment, and development of prevention strategies. 24 references