Former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is accused of murdering his wife, Pauline Hanna. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro
Warning: This story discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts from the beginning.
Pauline Hanna had an increased risk of suicide leading up to her death, a psychiatrist says.
Former eye surgeon Philip Polkinghorne is accused of murdering Hanna, his wife, and staging her death to appear as a suicide.
But his defence argues Hanna's death in April of 2021 was a genuine suicide.
Hanna was grieving for her mother who had died earlier in the year, and had been taking medication to treat depression for many years.
Polkinghorne's defence also claims Hanna had an alcohol use disorder and would drink in combination with medication, including the sleeping pill zopiclone.
Academic psychiatrist David Menkes, a witness for the defence, noted this behaviour could have contributed to suicidal thoughts.
"Much like zopiclone and other sleeping medications, [alcohol] is a central nervous system depressant. It tends to, for most individuals, [put them to sleep]," he explained.
"It's generally not very pleasant to wake up from a drugged sleep... Anyone who's overindulged the night before is likely to have experienced that reaction the following day. There's two components, the hangover effect... but then there's the more general depression of mood as well."
Menkes said chronic drinkers were known to experience depression.
He explained that suicidal behaviour could be unpredictable.
"Some people do plan it, sometimes in meticulous detail... [But] that's probably the minority... A lot of people behave in a way that's called unplanned or impulsive suicide and in that case it can be much more of a sudden decision," he said.
"There will be some people where the risk is quite apparent with various threats, and there are people where there is no apparent risk and it comes out of the blue."
More to come...
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