The development of the use of medications, particularly psychotropic drugs, has resulted in significant changes in suicidal behaviours: for the first time in history, a therapeutic agent has been also a common means of ending life and the proportion of non-lethal suicide attempts for each death by suicide has increased significantly. Medications are the third most common means of suicide in Canada and in France and medications account for 80% of all hospitalizations for suicide attempts in those countries. The relationship between medications and suicide is complex. One way to understand the association between medications and suicide is to examine the desired outcome of medication use and a suicide. In both instances the object may be understood as a suppression or putting to sleep of unwanted and intolerable thoughts, tensions and suffering.