TW: The Lindsay Clancy trial and the debate over postnatal psychosis

[Porterpolitics]

Has anyone else been following the Lindsay Clancy trial in the US? Today was day 9 and I’ve been horrified at the reactions online. It feels very split as to whether people believe she was suffering from post partum psychosis or whether she is a cold-blooded killer. In my mind, this poor woman was failed by several healthcare professionals and has lost everything as a result.

TW: A mother of three young children experienced post natal anxiety (or depression, or psychosis- the jury is literally out on this) to the extent that she was unable to sleep at night and was experiencing regular ‘horrible thoughts’. By all accounts a good and loving mother, she sought help from multiple medical professionals on several occasions in the months leading up to the defining incident in Jan 2023, including ringing the suicide hotline twice in December of 2022 and checking herself into an in-patient psychiatric unit a few days beforehand. Each medic determined her not to be a risk to herself or others and simply prescribed various cocktails of SSRIs. She herself was a registered labour nurse (midwife) on maternity leave, which was extended due to her inability to function sufficiently to look after patients. She repeatedly reported bad reactions to these drugs, and each time the medical professional prescribing simply upped her dose or switched her to a different SSRI, in spite of repeated side effects indicating these drugs did not agree with her. Inevitably her mental condition worsened and she ended the lives of her three young children, aged 5, 3 and 8 months and threw herself out of a window whilst her husband was out of the house. She now stands on trial for murder.

Thoughts?

I think it’s utterly tragic, witnesses say she told them she was struggling, she repeatedly saw health professionals. I don’t disbelieve she was suffering a psychotic episode from what I’ve seen so far and that lady has lost absolutely everything. Her babies, her husband and her life as she will spend it locked up either way. Those babies family have suffered tremendous loss.
It’s not an easy case and makes hard reading for me

I agree. I think what really shocked me today was that Dr Tufts who I felt had been previously painted as some kind of ultimate specialist psychiatrist, saw her only over virtual online consultation and after their first session prescribed after just 17 minutes of non-therapeutic discussion. Each session lasted just 25 mins each. How can you possibly feel able to diagnose- let alone prescribe- accurately in that amount of time?!

I’ve just started reading about this, and what an upsetting case it is.

I’m wondering if there’s less public knowledge of postpartum psychosis in USA compared to UK? I’m really shocked by the behaviour of health professionals who interacted with Lindsay, but also friends and family who didn’t seem to attach great risk to a postpartum woman sharing ‘dark thoughts’.

The UK picture with tragic cases seems to be more of women completely hiding their mental state from HCPs and loved ones, or of rapidly declining crisis where an in-patient bed hasn’t been secured quickly enough/lack of decisive action from HCPs early in a presentation. It doesn’t appear Lindsay was hiding her mental state at all, and nor does it appear to be a rapid decline overnight.

The social media commentary on it is awful. People treating it like a soap opera and looking for conspiracy theories. The truth is always much sadder.

Reminds me of the Andrea Yates case many years ago 😔 I remember watching that trial and thinking that poor woman looks dreadfully unwell. There's still so much stigma attached to post partum mental illness.