A FORMER senior psychiatric nurse who took an overdose of paracetamol intended to take her own life, an inquest heard.

Gail Sunderland, 56, was found unconscious at her home in Richmond Road, Accrington, last September.

An inquest at the Blackburn Enterprise Centre heard Mrs Sunderland had talked about ending her life a few years ago.

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Her husband, David Sunderland, said her health was not good as she was overweight and had an operation on her stomach to help reduce her weight down.

He said: “She lost a lot of weight, going back to 2011 we were very worried for her, she was seven stone and had come down from 13 stone. She was affected by this. Her moods were up and down.

She was familiar with the issue, she did not tell anyone. “I think she tried getting help. She was in and out of The Mount in Accrington. I did not know what that involved. She knew what was wrong with her. She made an attempt on her life in 2015.”

The Mount is the home of both the community eating disorder and mental health teams.

Dr Deepa Jacob, a consultant from Royal Blackburn Hospital carried out a post mortem examination and found there was 16 times the amount of paracetamol in her blood than the regular dose taken to ease pain. She said: “There was raised levels of paracetamol and traces of trazodone. There was tablets still in her digestive system at the time of the post mortem.”

Mr Sunderland asked Dr Jacob how the overdose of paracetamol would have contributed to her death.

Dr Jacob said the drugs would have made her blood more acidic, known as acidosis. She said: “It would have also reduced the glucose in her blood and caused hypoglycaemia.”

Coroner Michael Singleton said the medical cause of death was paracetamol toxicity. He said: “The conclusion I reach is suicide. I give my sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family.”