Experts in Amsterdam believe troubled Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh suffered a form of repeated psychosis in his final 18 months.

However, they are shying away from a definitive diagnosis on his underlying mental state.

They said a well-documented breakdown that resulted in van Gogh cutting off his ear in 1888 could have been the result of alcohol or stress.  He died from a gunshot wound a year and half later, in an apparent suicide.

Medical professionals and art historians weighed up evidence but a medical ethics professor who took part in the discussion says there wasn’t just one single thing that explains what happened to the artist in its entirety.

Popular theories about his mental health have included bipolar disorder and or schizophrenia.