Anxiolytic agents—usually defined in the past as chiefly the benzodiazepines—are among the most commonly used psychotropic drugs. The vast majority of prescriptions for these medications are issued by primary care physicians. Psychiatrists write less than 20% of the prescriptions for anxiolytics in this country, reflecting, in part, the fact that most anxious patients never see psychiatrists. Moreover, anxiolytics are prescribed for a wide variety of patients who do not have a primary anxiety disorder—namely, patients who present to primary care physicians with somatic complaints or true somatic disease.