NEED TO KNOW
Georgina Owen followed a vegan diet but stopped taking vitamin B12 supplements for at least six months before she died by suicide in September 2019
A B12 deficiency can cause psychological symptoms like psychosis and delusions, according to medical experts
Owen’s family noted erratic behavior and mental health struggles in the weeks leading up to her death
A 21-year-old college student died by suicide after her vegan diet caused a vitamin B12 deficiency that, according to an investigation into her death, triggered a “psychiatric disorder” that led to “delusional beliefs.“
Georgina Owen enrolled at Swansea University in Wales in 2018; the university described her as “a student who was vibrant, full of enthusiasm, passionate and well-liked by her peers and lecturers,” according to a U.K. inquest.
Georgina Owen
Credit: Peasgood & Skeates Family Funeral Services
The geography student had adhered to a vegan diet since 2016, the inquest report said. Her family claimed that she had been taking vitamin B12 supplements to balance her diet, but as of August 2019, she hadn’t taken them for six months.
B12 is mostly found in animal products, Cleveland Clinic says, but it can be obtained in fortified foods like cereals, or nutritional yeast. A deficiency can cause “physical, neurological and psychological symptoms. As the National Library of Medicine says, “Vitamin B12 deficiency can manifest solely as ATPD (Acute and Transient Psychotic Disorder), particularly in individuals following vegetarian diets.” The report recommends assessing B12 levels in psychiatric patients presenting with psychosis. “Common psychiatric manifestations include depression, mania, psychotic symptoms, cognitive impairment, and delirium. These symptoms underscore vitamin B12’s vital role in maintaining mental well-being.”
According to the coroner, Owen’s family said she “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.”
Owen had begun meditating, telling her family she had a “distressing” out-of-body experience. Thinking she was struggling with anxiety, her family encouraged her to seek mental health care.
She was scheduled to return to school on Sept. 19, 2019. But that morning, Owen was found hanging in her shower. She was revived and brought to the hospital, where scans determined that Owen no longer had brain activity.
Georgina Owen
Credit: Peasgood & Skeates Family Funeral Services
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The main cause of death was cited as hypoxic brain injury and hanging, per the coroner’s report. However, a psychiatric review of the note she wrote before her death “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,” the report said.
Following her death, blood tests determined that she had a B12 deficiency, which “likely resulted from Miss Owen’s vegan diet of around three years duration.”
The inquest concluded that Owen, at the time of her death, was “suffering delusional beliefs brought about by a Vitamin B12 deficiency developed as a direct result of her vegan diet.”
The European Journal of Medicine published a “cautionary note” about the need to supplement plant-based diets with fortified foods or vitamins, as researchers wrote they “encourage people planning for a vegan diet to take a certified supplement of vitamin B12 at a mealtime.”
Read the original article on People