Psychiatry Failed Lindsay Clancy

You have probably heard about the case of Lindsay Clancy, the mother who strangled her children and who then tried to commit suicide.

The story is so frightening that we do not really care to rehearse all of the elements.

Those who have been looking for a reason for her actions have glommed on the postpartum depression, and have bemoaned the fact that hers was not very well treated.

In truth, psychiatrists did treat her depression. The problem is that they did not do a very good job of it. They prescribed a dizzying mix of different medications. We know that she admitted herself to an excellent psychiatric hospital, but we do not know how many different physicians prescribed which medications.

Let us call this a cautionary tale. Having recourse to pills and more pills did not help. The notion that there was something scientific about the treatment beggars belief. The next time you think that we should provide psychiatric treatment more widely, keep in mind that all psychiatric treatment is not created equal and that the profession has developed the bad habit of reducing all problems to biochemistry. Many psychiatrists would never have put her on so many different medications, but she was not consulting with some backwoods faith healer.

The Daily Mail has the story.

The midwife mother who strangled her three children in an apparent drug-induced fog while suffering postpartum depression checked herself into a psychiatric hospital seeking help three weeks before she killed the kids, but was released with a prescription for antidepressants. 

Lindsay Clancy, 32, is facing life in prison if convicted of first degree murder for the deaths of her children Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months on January 24. 

On January 1, Lindsay - who was herself a labor nurse herself at Massachusetts General Hospital - checked herself into the McLean psychiatric hospital in Belmont.

She spent five days there, according to her attorney Kevin Reddington, during which she complained about becoming addicted to benzodiazepines. 

Obviously, the hospital is trying to protect itself against lawsuits:

A spokesman for the hospital declined to give details on her care or discharge, citing privacy laws. 

'Due to federal privacy laws and our ethical standards, we are unable to comment on specific patient cases. 

'The complexities of mental health are different for each individual and similarly, treatment strategies vary depending on each person’s unique needs. 

'Whether it be proven and effective medications, psychotherapy, peer support, complementary and alternative medicine, or a combination of multiple approaches, it is important that any care plan be evidence-based and derived from patient-centered discussions and shared decision making,' he said. 

Prosecutors told a court yesterday that Lindsay later told her husband she heard a 'man's voice' telling her to kill the kids and herself, and that it was her 'only chance'. 

Her attorney says she had become shell of herself in the months since her third child's birth, and that she'd been overprescribed an astonishing combination of 13 different drugs to help her cope. 

For those who are familiar with medications, here are the drugs she was prescribed. 

• Klonopin

• Valium

• Ativan

• Zoloft

• Amitriptyline

• Remeron

• Prozac

• Trazodone

• Lamictal

• Seroquel

• buspirone

• hydroxyzine

• Ambien

The system failed Lindsay, it failed her children, it failed her family. We should not let it off easily.