Drug use has been evaluated from a study conducted in a large french firm during 1992. The main objective of this study was to estimate prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders and define professional factors. Psychotropic drug use has been measured by the percentage of subjects reporting their regular or occasional use during the 12 last months. Self-reported resort to medical system and sick leaves for psychiatric reason has been also examined during the same period. Lifetime and 12-month prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders have been measured with a standardized questionnaire (CIDI, Composite International Diagnostic Interview) according to the criteria for the DSM III-R. A randomized sample of 540 subjects was obtained from two stages procedure. In first, a screening stage on 10,000 employees with the 12-items General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The screened population was stratified on the global score GHQ-12 (> or = 3 and < 3). 270 subjects were randomized in each group and interviewed with CIDI. Occasional and regular psychotropic drug use is respectively 41.1% and 6.8% in women, 16.7% and 3.4% in men. It is much higher after 45 years (regular use: 18.8% in women and 7.6% in men). Only 6% of men and 7% of women with depressive disorders use regularly psychotropic drugs, the occasional use is 27% and 73%. In one third of the cases use regularly psychotropic drug.