Finding into death of PAR
Demographics
19y, male
Date of death
2014-08-18
Finding date
2017-02-21
Cause of death
Plastic bag asphyxia
AI-generated summary
A 19-year-old university student died by plastic bag asphyxia with helium gas. He had returned from Thailand in January 2014 reporting excessive groin sweating, which caused significant psychological distress and social withdrawal. In June and July 2014, he was diagnosed with depression and anxiety by his GP and commenced on desvenlafaxine 50mg. The GP encouraged psychological counselling, which the patient refused. The patient was scheduled for review in four weeks. The coroner found the GP's management reasonable but noted it did not fully comply with NHMRC guidelines recommending review within seven days and weekly for four weeks. However, the coroner concluded there was no causal link between the GP's management and the patient's apparently impulsive suicide, and no overt signs of heightened distress were evident to family or clinicians before death.
AI-generated summary and tagging — may contain inaccuracies; refer to original finding for legal purposes.
Specialties
Drugs involved
Clinical conditions
Contributing factors
- depression and anxiety
- social withdrawal following excessive sweating complaint
- psychological distress
- patient refusal of psychological counselling
- lack of face-to-face follow-up within guideline timeframes
- apparent impulsive nature of suicide attempt
Coroner's recommendations
- That the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners draws its members' attention to the National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Practice Guideline on Depression in Adolescents and Young People (2011).
- That the National Health and Medical Review Council considers how it might improve the way in which it promulgates clinical guidelines and draws the attention of clinicians to them.
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