At the same time as clinicians are being exhorted to prevent suicide by employing questionable treatment approaches, there has been simultaneous concern that use of psychotropic drugs might somehow provoke suicidal behaviour in a subgroup of vulnerable patients. This concern extends to areas outside psychiatry, relating for example to treatment with cardiovascular drugs & the use of lipid lowering drugs. A number of mechanisms have been proposed for the putative association of suicidal behaviour with antidepressant drugs. This review describes the findings of relevant randomized controlled trials, results of pooled analyses, evaluations of naturalistic clinical practice & insights from pharmacoepidemiological studies, with the aim of summarizing the current literature on this controversial aspect of health care. (64 refs.)