[The role of elderly female consumers of allopathic tranquilizers in the popularization of the use of these medicines].

The consumption of allopathic tranquilizers (benzodiazepines) has social and cultural dimensions, not being restricted to a relation between physician and patient. Therefore, we aimed to show that the consumption of tranquilizers is particularized according to the social and cultural contexts their consumers are involved in. Using a qualitative approach with semistructured interviews, we search for conceptions about allopathic tranquilizers in 18 elderly women, psychiatric patients attended to in the Mental Health Centre of the Health Teaching Centre at the, University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Medical School, (FMRP-USP), in the city of Ribeirão Preto (SP), Brazil, who were consumers of benzodiazepines for more than one year. We concluded that the consumption of tranquilizers is entangled in a network of social relations, including neighbors, relatives and friends. The interviewed women showed to have autonomy, feeling able to use, indicate, offer and lend, or not, these medicines, according to their conceptions.