I saw where someone referred to some brakes on some older road bikes as suicide brakes. Were they refering to the brakes which have handles to run along the top of the handle bar? Also why is this type brake bad? Is there a possibility that the lever will break during use or maybe slip off the normal break handle?

I am not comfortable using the regular brake handle and I am wondering if there is some kind of trick that is used to break when using brifters. Maybe the new brifters take a lot less force to stop the bike.