Charmaine Dragun

Charmaine Margaret Dragun was born in Perth, Western Australia to Estelle and Michael Dragun. According to her mother, Dragun was a perfectionist and developed anorexia while she was attending university at the WA Academy of Performing Arts and continued to have problems related to anorexia periodically for the next several years. When she was 18 years old, she saw a psychiatrist to address the eating disorder and was also diagnosed with depression and started on a class of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), that she continued taking for several years.[4][5][6]

Dragun was engaged to Simon Struthers, a forensic investigator,[5] whom she had been dating since she was 16 years old,[7] and they were planning to marry on Dragun's 30th birthday.[8][9]

In 2004, eight months before moving to Sydney, Dragun told her mother that her medication made her feel numb and she started seeing a psychiatrist who recommended that Dragun discontinue medication altogether. Her mother said that Dragun's symptoms started to go "down hill" after six weeks off antidepressants. She moved back home with her parents and temporarily ended her relationship with Struthers, stating that she could not give him happiness.[3] She restarted pharmacotherapy on a new class of antidepressants, serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs),[4] prescribed by her general practitioner (GP), which she took until 2007.[5]

When she moved to Sydney in 2005, Dragun and Struthers reunited and after a few months, were living together in Sydney. Dragun had difficulty adjusting to the new city and being so far from family. She started working with a clinical psychologist there that she reportedly had a good rapport with, according to Dragun's mother.[5]

Around August or September 2007, Dragun's symptoms worsened and her psychologist recommended that Dragun consult a psychiatrist about adjusting her medication.[5] In October 2007, her new psychiatrist had initiated a cross-taper to change Dragun from the SNRI to a different brand of SSRI,[5][6] a change which can take up to six weeks to take effect.[10] Dragun initially told her mother that she was optimistic about the switch, but after less than three weeks, she told her mother over the phone that she was having thoughts of suicide and that she felt "worthless." Dragun committed suicide a few days later.[3][5]