Coroner links student's death to Vitamin B12 deficiency from vegan diet
21-year-old Georgina Owen, from Essex, reportedly had not been taking her supplements, which led to a decline in her mental health
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A university student took her own life while suffering delusional beliefs brought about by a vitamin B12 deficiency developed as a direct result of her vegan diet, an inquest has concluded.
Georgina Owen, 21, of Saffron Walden, Essex, followed a vegan diet from 2016 “stemming from her environmental concerns”, Cambridgeshire area coroner Elizabeth Gray wrote.
Ms Gray said that in August 2019, Miss Owen’s family noted that she had not been taking her vitamin B12 supplements for at least six months, and Miss Owen said that she had forgotten to take them.
She had been due to return to Swansea University on September 19 2019, but was found at her home address, together with a note.
She was resuscitated and taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where she died on September 21, an inquest in writing which was conducted on Monday found.
Ms Gray said that Miss Owen had “reported to her family that she had bought an organic B12 supplement from Canada, the dosage of which would be 1mg once per day, oral spray”.
“Miss Owen’s family report that Miss Owen had demonstrated unusual, erratic behaviour in the period leading up to her death, and they provided diaries written by Miss Owen which they suggest demonstrates her erratic behaviour and a deterioration in her mental health in the immediate period before her death,” she said.
The coroner said that a psychiatrist concluded Miss Owen’s diary entries viewed on their own do not provide evidence that she was planning to end her life.
But the psychiatrist said that her final note “does provide evidence of a possible mental illness and that on the balance of probabilities, at the time Miss Owen was writing this last note, she was experiencing delusions” and that “psychiatric manifestations caused by vitamin B12 deficiency are recognised”.
Blood tests were found to be “consistent with vitamin B12 deficiency and that this likely resulted from Miss Owen’s vegan diet of around three years duration”, the coroner said.
In her conclusion, the coroner said: “Miss Owen died from a self-inflicted ligature to her neck whilst on the balance of probabilities suffering delusional beliefs brought about by a vitamin B12 deficiency developed as a direct result of her vegan diet.”
She said that an expert report “concludes that Miss Owen’s vague signs of cognitive impairment, anxiety, difficulty with simple decision making and fatigue as described by her family in the period before her death suggest a gradually developing psychiatric disorder culminating in the delusional beliefs expressed in Miss Owen’s final letter”.
She said that Miss Owen, who started studying geography at Swansea University in the academic year 2017/18, was described by the university as “vibrant, full of enthusiasm, passionate and well-liked by her peers and lecturers”.
She had been due to return to university on September 19 2019, being driven there by her mother, and “had made plans to go surfing over the weekend”.
Vitamin B12 is found in meat, fish, eggs, dairy products and specially fortified foods.
The NHS website advises that a deficiency can lead to problems including psychological problems, which can range from mild depression or anxiety to confusion and dementia, as well as extreme tiredness, muscle weakness and problems with vision and memory.