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Suicide of depressed mother
SEVERE depression and delusions that she was a bad mother led to the death of a 57-year-old woman off Beachy Head last October.
A coroner decided Josephine Dobson, of Turners Hill, East Sussex, had committed suicide on October 5, 2007, while the balance of her mind was disturbed.
The inquest heard Mrs Dobson, who suffered from bipolar disorder and had had mental health problems since 1998, wrongly believed she had ruined her two daughters' lives and they and her husband Christopher would be better off without her.
Her consultant psychiatrist, Dr Michael Rowlands, said her depression came and went and she had been free of it for six years following a course of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), which her family said helped enormously.
Defending his decision not to hospitalise Mrs Dobson and arrange more ECT following a bad spell in September, he said she had seemed better, was not suicidal and was planning a family trip to Lourdes.
Coroner Alan Craze said he could understand Dr Rowlands's reasoning.
Giving his verdict, he said, "Given the history and the fact Mrs Dobson had been to Beachy Head once before with a suicide note, there is no doubt whatsoever in my mind that what she did she deliberately did with the intention of bringing her life to an end."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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