A DEPRESSED mother who suffered sexual and physical abuse in her first marriage killed herself with a drugs overdose, an inquest was told.

Farida Ahmed, 54, suffered from halluc-inations and delusions, and feared she was being attacked as a result of the abuse, a psychiatrist told the hearing.

The mother-of-two, of Hillside Close, Blackburn, suffered a fit at her home in August 2006 after she broke into a locked medicine cabinet and overdosed on anti-depressants, the hearing was told.

She died at Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Mrs Ahmed had been receiving psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety for over ten years and had tried to take her life on a number of occasions, her husband Saleem Ahmed told the inquest.

Mrs Ahmed married again in 1997 after meeting Saleem at the former Queens Park Hospital, where she was receiving treatment for depression.

In the last five years her symptoms worsened and she started complaining of delusions and hallu-cinations about people touching and attacking her, psychiatrist Dr P. Saleem told the inquest.

"She had a traumatic first marriage where she was the victim of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

"The symptoms related to her previous experiences and this led to anger and distress adding to the depression," Dr Saleem added. As Mrs Ahmed's depressive sympms improved the underlying sexual and emotional abuse came to the fore front, he said.

Mr Ahmed said: "She had been hearing voices, had fluctuating moods, irrational behaviour. She had become agitated and argumentative.

"She said she did not want to live anymore."

East Lancashire coroner Richard Turner, said: "The only conclusion open to me is that Farida Ahmed killed herself whilst suffering from a psychiatric disorder."

Outside the inquest, Mr Ahmed, 49, who found his wife's body, said: "She was an extremely dedicated mother who would have done anything for her children.

"The children loved her very much and she loved them to bits."

Zahid Piracha, 40, Mrs Ahmed's younger brother, said: "You never think it's going to happen."

Mrs Ahmed leaves a son and daughter from her first marriage.