SOUTH Australian coroner Mark Johns has recommended that laxative medications be removed from pharmacy front of shop and only made available with pharmacist advice, after an inquest into the death of an anorexic woman who was reportedly taking up to 800 tablets each day.
The 28-year-old died in 2014 from complications associated with laxative abuse, with the inquest hearing evidence that she and her husband spent about $500 per week on up to 30 boxes of Dulcolax at the Chemist King in the Adelaide suburb of Hectorville.
Tragically the woman had told friends and family she was suffering from ovarian cancer to cover the symptoms of her anorexia.
She also told her husband an oncologist had injected chemotherapy drugs into the laxatives to treat the cancer.
The pharmacy's retail manager Jessica Cutting testified during the hearing, confirming that she had approved bulk orders of the laxative, with the coroner rejecting her claims she had sought approvals from the pharmacist on site.
Cutting said she wasn't aware the recommended daily dose of Dulcolax was two to three tablets per day for less than a week, saying she believed the product was being purchased to manage the patient's cancer symptoms.
The coroner recommended Dulcolax and other laxatives be classed as "pharmacist-only medications," adding: "I draw this finding to the attention of the Pharmacy Board of Australia, the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine".
The full findings can be viewed at www.courts.sa.gov.au.
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