Adelaide: A coroner has called for tighter controls on the sale of laxatives after the death of an Adelaide woman who was taking up to 800 tablets a day because of an eating disorder.

Claudia La Bella, 28, weighed just 35 kilograms when she was admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in June 2014, dangerously dehydrated and with severe abdominal pain.

For two years she had pretended to have terminal ovarian cancer, with her family only finding out she was suffering from anorexia nervosa after her death.

In his findings on Wednesday, South Australia Coroner Mark Johns recommend that Dulcolax and similar laxatives not be available for self-selection from pharmacy shelves or online stores, with purchases only allowed following consultation with a pharmacist.

He also recommended that when cases of severe weight loss present at hospitals and where there are any suspicions of an eating disorder, that a psychiatric referral must be made as a matter of urgency if the patients wish to self-discharge.