The family of the 21-year-old said she had ‘erratic behaviour’ in the months leading up to her death
A university student who suffered “delusions” as a result of a vitamin deficiency caused by a vegan diet later took her own life, an inquest has heard. Georgina Owen, aged 21, from Saffron Walden in Essex, died at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge on September 19, 2019.
In a written inquest into her death, Coroner Elizabeth Gray ruled that Georgina died of a brain injury after taking her own life. Since 2016, Georgina had been on a vegan diet.
The inquest recorded that in August 2019, Georgina’s family said she hadn’t taken her vitamin B12 supplements – needed due to her diet – for at least 12 months. Georgina said she had “forgotten to take them”. 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. These can range from mild depression or anxiety to confusion and dementia, as well as extreme tiredness, muscle weakness and problems with vision and memory.
The 21-year-old student, who attended the University of Swansea, told her family she had “bought an organic B12 supplement from Canada, the dosage of which would be 1mg once per day, oral spray”. Her family said Georgina demonstrated “unusual erratic behaviour” in the period leading up to her death.
Georgina’s family referred her to a psychiatrist, who referred to diary entries written by Georgina, and concluded there was no evidence she was “planning to end her life”.
However, her final diary entries did provide evidence of a “possible mental illness and that on the balance of probabilities” Georgina may have experienced “delusions” in her last note.
The inquest also read that investigations were carried out to determine whether Georgina had a vitamin B12 deficiency as a result of her vegan diet. If this was true, it would be investigated if it could have “caused her to have psychiatric manifestations in the period before her death”.
Blood tests and expert reports were carried out. The expert reports concluded that the vitamin deficiency had “likely resulted from Miss Owen’s vegan diet of around three years”.
The inquest added: “Evidence also 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.”

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