Brief summary of some of her medication and reactions:
Zoloft, sertraline is an SSRI which can trigger manic episodes, was the first. She didn’t sleep for 48 hours on it experienced racing thoughts and increased anxiety. Nonetheless the dose was increased from 25mg to 50mg.
She was then given a cocktail of medications for insomnia and heart palpitations.
She was later given Prozac - another SSRI ie in the same class ie one that can trigger mania in bipolar. Given her poor reaction to Zoloft this was a strange choice.
LC then reported intensifying insomnia which should have been a red flag for drug intolerance or bipolar
She was given more sleep and anti anxiety medication.
She then experienced disassociation perceiving the world around her as “unstable”, “distorted” and “distant”. She reported feeling “disconnected” from her own body, unable to drive unable to be left alone.
This should’ve flagged a reassessment of the whole diagnosis and drug treatment.
At this point, she sees, not a psychiatrist, but another nurse practitioner who gave her Seroquel a bipolar med.
Her condition then took a dramatic turn for the worse – she experienced suicidal ideation, began experiencing what she described as “intrusive thoughts “ the voices said “I will not be the same I want to die”
She described herself to her husband and parents as feeling “emotionless “and “like a zombie”.
She lost 15 lbs, had no appetite and experienced panic attacks and confusion and experience a lack of attention over the days.
She was so scared by this she called the suicide hotline but they failed to hospitalise her as she didn’t have a particular suicide plan.
Rang another hotline but again they didn’t because she didn’t have a plan.
Her husband then followed up with her nurse practitioner. He said LC was now “10,000 times worse since she started this medication“. He asked if they could get LC off the medication and start from scratch.
But instead of stopping the medication, the nurse increased the dose.
PC then contacted the nurse again to say LC had had her worst week yet - he said she had had loud repeated auditory hallucinations all day, couldn’t get out of bed.
She later reported to PC snd her mother that she had thoughts of killing herself and harming the kids. She had delusions that people could hear her thoughts, that she would be locked up and have her children taken away.
She was then hospitalised and the Seroquel was stopped.
But she was then given another AD Amitriptyline and the dose increased the day before the killings.
On the day itself she reported waking up with suicidal thoughts, had suicidal hallucinations all day which later in the day begins to focus on harming the children.