What do you think happened to Lindsay Clancy?

[msc545]

I think that Lindsay Clancy probably suffered a psychotic episode or a series of them that were not diagnosed or treated properly. Contrary to what it says in the press, with the exception of a very small dose of Seroquel (which is usually given at that strength just for sleeping), none of the other medications she was taking were antipsychotics. Seroquel, given at the prescribed strength, was unlikely to have any antipsychotic activity.

I also think, given her alleged symptom presentation to the practitioners who saw her prior to her murdering her children, the medications she was given were reasonable, but they did not seem to work. I strongly suspect that she was probably having some hallucinations and delusions prior to murdering her children that she never reported to those practitioners. In the hospital, after she had murdered her children, she complained of visual hallucinations.

Updates

5 d

All that said, at least one practitioner was supposedly an expert in postpartum illness despite her apparent lack of experience. I think we could reasonably expect her to be more suspicious than she apparently was about Lindsay's stability going forward, regardless of what Lindsay told her. She could have provided her with psychotherapy, though I understand she was not trained in it - but I'm certain she had and continues to have colleagues who are trained and qualified in it, and one referral

Updates

5 d

A referral might have made all the difference. Lindsay had three children and a household to take care of; it's a very heavy burden in and of itself for a stable person. Her degree of distress was a red light. A much more comprehensive referral, or set of referrals, was needed, especially since the medications never seemed to work. If the provider felt she was out of her depth, then she should have gotten a consultation, and apparently did not. Dunning-Kruger applies even to professionals.

[Staximus]

I’m not familiar with the details of the case. If she killed her kids then it’s reasonable to assume she might kill others. Hopefully they give her the chair but that won’t happen. I just read that the mom said Lindsay Clancy said she thought about harming the kids about a month before it happened. Why the hell were those kids not removed from her home if people supposedly knew she was mentally unstable?

[msc545]

If he knew anything about postpartum psychosis, he would know that it is not particularly reasonable to think that she might kill others. That being said, I would not want her around children. Thinking about doing harm is not the same thing as doing harm. It turns out that a large percentage of women who just had babies have impulses to harm the babies that they don't act on. A thought about doing something like that is not the same thing as actually doing it. It's also not actionable. You can't put somebody in jail or a hospital because they're having thoughts like this. That being said, I will tell you that I am absolutely convinced that the inexperienced psychiatrist that saw her initially completely missed the appropriate diagnosis. She also failed to do any kind of harm reduction whatsoever, and she did the usual psychiatric dance of "if this drug doesn't work, maybe this drug will work, or if this drug maybe was too low, so I'll increase it. Maybe that'll work." None of it worked. If this woman had had a decent psychotherapist from the beginning, something the psychiatrist was never trained to do, we would have had a better outcome with this, I think. That psychiatrist is toast. She will probably never practice again, at least in this country. Predictably, she will lose her medical license.

[Sevenpointfive]

there's really only one solution here. but how it got here i don't know. i've seen someone on seroquel and all they want to be doing is sleeping. however is she had a sleep disorder as well, then something could have happened. i wonder what time of day it was? had she just taken her medicine?

i haven't followed this story.

[AngryCarl3]

Isn't she on trial for killing her kids? The defence aren't denying she did it, just saying she was suffering post-partum psychosis and wasn't responsible. Like the time I took sleeping pills and shaved my head in the middle of the night. There but for the grace of God...

To be clear I don't know if she meant to kill the kids or not.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Visual Hallucinations are very rare. I have audible hallucinations and only Abilify works. The doctors tried every other medication known to man and none of them really even helped. At least abilify stops most of it. NOt all of it.

[msc545]

Visual hallucinations are indeed very rare and extremely serious. Auditory hallucinations are extremely dangerous in contrast to visual hallucinations, but both of them are signs of psychosis, which needs to be treated. I'm glad to hear that you're taking Abilify and that it's working for you.

[MrChinaski]

She's just another murderer.

[msc545]

It's a lot different than that.