Oregon Ranks near Top in Suicides among Elderly

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Byline: THE HEALTH FILES By Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Much ink has been spilled over the suicide last month of gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson. At age 67, in the kitchen of his Colorado compound, he stuck a .45-caliber gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

Those who knew the hard-living, gun-loving Thompson, including his family, have said his violent, self-inflicted death came as no surprise, nor was it the result of chronic pain or depression.

"This is a triumph of his, not a desperate, tragic failure," his wife, Anita Thompson, told the Rocky Mountain News.

While Thompson was a true American iconoclast, his means of death exemplifies what public health and mental health officials say is a troubling, preventable trend in Oregon and across the country: Elder suicide.

The elderly - …