A 47-YEAR-OLD mother-of-three with a long history of depression killed herself by taking a massive overdose of prescribed medication.

An inquest heard that Christine Wright had been a voluntary psychiatric in-patient at Queens Park Hospital, Blackburn, until just two weeks before her death in November.

And on the day of her discharge, Ms Wright had told hospital staff she was optimistic about her future. The inquest heard that Ms Wright, of Leyburn Road, Blackburn, had suffered from post-natal depression after the birth of all three of her children. She had tried to commit suicide after the birth of her 13-year-old daughter by taking an overdose of tablets. Then, 12 months ago, she stabbed herself in the chest, puncturing a lung.

Her mother, Cynthia Ince, told the inquest her daughter had promised she would never do anything like that again.

Mrs Ince said her daughter always seemed unhappy.

"She didn't seem to have many happy moments in her life, she was always low," said Mrs Ince. "I think if she had won the lottery she would still have been very low, that was the way she had got."

Mrs Ince visited her daughter on Monday, November 10 and she said she just could not cope.

"She said she didn't want to be here," said Mrs Ince, who arranged to meet her daughter at the hairdressers the following day. When she did not keep their appointment, or answer the phone, Mrs Ince went to the house in Leyburn Road where she found her daughter in bed.

"She was ice cold, but there was sweat pouring down her face" she said.

Ms Wright was taken to Blackburn Royal Infirmary and then to Royal Lancaster Hospital, but died two days later.

Seven empty tablet boxes were found at her house and blood tests showed valproic acid at a concentration of 720 micrograms per litre. The normal therapeutic level is between 40 and 100 micrograms.

The medical cause of death was given as valproic acid toxicity, and Coroner Michael Singleton recorded a verdict that Ms Wright had killed herself.