Student killed herself ‘while suffering delusions caused by her vegan diet’

A student ended her own life while suffering ‘delusions’ triggered by her vegan diet, a coroner has found.

Georgina Owen, 21, from Saffron Walden in Essex, had been following a plant-based diet for three years before her death in September 2019.

The University of Swansea student, described as ‘vibrant and full of enthusiasm’, suffered from a B12 deficiency – which can cause psychosis and paranoia – in the last few months of her life.

Elizabeth Gray, area coroner for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, said Georgina had shown ‘unusually erratic behaviour’ in the same period and her diary entries suggested a ‘deterioration’ in her mental health.

In a narrative conclusion, she ruled the student died while ‘on the balance of probabilities suffering delusional beliefs brought about by a Vitamin B12 deficiency developed as a direct result of her vegan diet’.

The NHS states that adults need around 1.5 micrograms of vitamin B12 per day. It can be found in meat, fish, milk and eggs, and is difficult to obtain through an exclusively vegan diet.

Vegans must get it through supplements or fortified foods.

Georgina’s family told the inquest the student had said she ‘forgot’ to take her supplements but had bought an ‘organic’ B12 spray from Canada, the Daily Mail reports.

However, blood samples taken after her death showed she was deficient in the micronutrient.

A report by three experts noted Georgina had ‘vague signs of cognitive impairment, anxiety, difficulty with simple decision-making and fatigue’.

It added that her symptoms were indicative of a ‘gradually developing psychiatric disorder culminating in the delusional beliefs’ expressed in a note found alongside her body.

Georgina’s father Julian, a consultant orthopaedic surgeon, told the newspaper before the conclusion of the inquest that he ‘strongly suspected’ a B12 deficiency ‘may well have had a role to play’ in her death.

The inquest heard the family arranged psychological support for what they thought was anxiety and had been planning to drive her back to Wales to resume her studies on September 19, 2019.

But they found her having attempted to take her life at home that day, and she died at Cambridge’s Addenbrooke’s Hospital two days later. 

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