LINDSAY Clancy can battle back from the devastating effects of her mental illness – but two leading experts have told The U.S. Sun the horrifying consequences of killing her three children could haunt her forever.
The Massachusetts mom of three will now look ahead to September 29, when her next legal steps will be discussed following a mistrial ruling in her bombshell murder case last Friday.
Clancy, 36, admitted to strangling her three young children to death in January 2023.
Her defense team, however, argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, asserting over six dramatic weeks that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.
Dr. Kenneth Spielvogel, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who has practiced for more than 30 years and delivered more than 15,000 babies, said the mental illness is not necessarily permanent.
“Someone can recover from postpartum psychosis,” Spielvogel, Senior Medical Officer at Carrara Treatment, told The U.S. Sun.
“Just like anyone who has bipolar disease or bipolar with psychotic features, schizophrenia with psychotic features, with proper treatment and medication, people can live healthy, productive lives.
“That’s not to say that there aren’t going to be challenges along the way in adjustments to treatment, but absolutely, it’s not a terminal illness type diagnosis.”
The doctor said he has often encountered women struggling with similar issues, although Clancy’s circumstances are radically different from those of someone recovering from an isolated episode of psychosis.
Spielvogel said the consequences of her actions, her physical disability and the deaths of her children could see her stuck in a permanent state of hell.
“I cannot imagine the prison that she’s living in when she’s outside of that psychotic dissociated state,” he said.
“She’s now wheelchair bound. Her three children are dead at her hands. Beyond, like the loss of relationship and everything else and her freedom. So that in and of itself is its own prison.”
Spielvogel predicts her treatment plan could last a “lifetime” and involve a combination of therapy, medications and other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy.
Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is most commonly used for severe mental health conditions, particularly major depression that has not responded adequately to other treatments.
During ECT, a controlled electrical current is passed through the brain while the patient is under general anesthesia, intentionally producing a brief seizure.
Treatments are typically given several times over a few weeks under careful medical supervision.
Experts say it can be highly effective, especially for severe depression, depression with psychotic symptoms or situations in which rapid improvement is needed, such as when someone is at high risk of suicide.
“My experience and seeing patients who are frankly psychotic and major depression with a plan to commit suicide, they have dramatic results in the aftermath,” Spielvogel continued, “and, having continued maintenance counseling, obviously medication adjustment, go on to lead very healthy, functional lives.
“But there’s absolutely treatments, whether it’s proper medication, even things like ECT which has become more in vogue lately and the technique has improved and the results are impressive. There are options.”
Nicole Kumi, CEO of a maternal mental-health and wellness organization, The Whole Mom, who specializes in training in perinatal mental health, also stressed that psychosis is not necessarily permanent.
It’s the pain and anguish of confronting her tragic actions that could become too tough to bear.
“From the clinical lens, we talk about recovery from mental health disorders specifically for her with postpartum psychosis, recovery is absolutely possible for individuals because psychosis is not a state, a permanent state that one is in,” Kumi said.
“So I think what’s really important for us to understand here is even if she is not actively psychotic, she is not in the state permanently. Recovery is possible.”
Overcoming the tragic deaths of her children, however, is a separate question.
“Recovering from that alongside mental health conditions kind of puts things in a different perspective,” she said.
“That is where the clinical teams really are going to come in and assess her comprehensive risk assessments, evaluation, mental state, risk for harm, self harm.”
While the jury of nine women and three men failed to reach a unanimous verdict at Plymouth Superior Court, mental health experts have begun to chart out the next steps for the former delivery nurse.
Clancy, who had been suffering mentally and was reportedly on 13 separate medications, was found outside her Duxbury, Massachusetts, home after throwing herself out of a window in a failed suicide attempt following the killings.
She has since been remanded to Tewksbury State Hospital, where she returned following the latest court proceedings and is expected to remain for the foreseeable future.
The heartbreakingly brutal case has been widely dubbed “America’s saddest trial” – but experts say the worldwide attention has also shone a fresh spotlight on the devastating issue of postpartum psychosis.
Clancy told investigators that, after the killings, she heard a male voice commanding her to kill the children and herself.
Defense experts characterized the voice as a “command hallucination,” which they said indicated psychosis.
Even if the condition that experts say overwhelmed Clancy has resolved, clinicians say she could face years, or potentially a lifetime, of psychiatric treatment – along with the devastating consequences of what happened.
Ahead of a potential second trial later this year, Clancy will already be well aware of the possible outcomes.
A not-guilty verdict would not necessarily mean an immediate release from psychiatric care.
“I don’t see it in a case where she’s going to be released immediately,” Kumi said.
“I see this maybe taking months again if she’s found not guilty, months of strong evaluation, safety precautions, protections put in place to ensure her safety and well-being outside of the institution she’s in.
“She is at high risk for suicide. We’re seeing that now because of her being on a suicide watch where she’s currently being housed.”
A guilty charge, meanwhile, would arguably see a far worse level of care in a prison.
“Anyone who pretends that wouldn’t be the case isn’t living in reality,” said Spielvogel.
Rather than assuming Clancy has recovered simply because she is no longer actively psychotic, clinicians would need to establish what her current baseline looks like and build treatment around it.
“We know that the psychosis happened in a specific period of time,” Kumi said.
“She’s not actively psychotic. So now they have to evaluate what does her baseline look like.
“And then a treatment plan would be developed from that, probably including individual therapy if daily if not weekly group programming, other guidelines that might be imposed upon her, again depending upon her mental health state.”
That treatment could change over time, particularly around emotionally difficult dates.
“There will be times and places for increased intensive supports, and then there may be times where they can pull back a little bit and have her in more of a generalized setting,” said Kumi.
“There’s fluidity within this. She may need more support around the children’s birthdays, around the anniversaries of of their deaths.”
If she were eventually considered safe enough to leave an institution, Kumi said she could move through different levels of care.
Treatment teams ordinarily take stock the situation after three months and then make any necessary adjustments.
“If she is found not guilty and she is released, I wouldn’t assume there would be step down procedures,” she said.
“There’s levels of treatment. So they’re inpatient. There’s intensive outpatient programs. “
For Spielvogel, one of the most troubling possibilities is what could happen if Clancy eventually emerges fully from the psychotic and dissociated state described by experts.
Becoming mentally well enough to understand what happened, he said, could itself be devastating.
“Guilty. Not guilty. She’s going to be imprisoned forever,” Spielvogel said.
“It’s almost like when you think about it is the cruelest of cruel because her moving to a non-psychotic, non-dissociated state is going to allow her to have insight into what she’s actually done. And I cannot imagine what a mother, how a mother could live with that.”
Kumi similarly believes Clancy’s recovery would involve constructing a new life rather than simply returning to who she was before the psychosis.
“She will never return to the person she was,” Kumi said. “There is no version of her that can exist in this post-trial outcome.”
“Her recovery is going to be based solely on reestablishing who she is as a person now, with all of this behind her at some point.”
Kumi cautioned against imagining recovery as a dramatic transformation. It could instead involve small, incremental improvements.
“It’s easy to say recovery would be that she’s, you know, moving around better and she’s smiling and she seems healthy. Maybe recovery is that she hasn’t thought about suicide today, and maybe she’s sleeping better through the night and a medication regimen is working for her.”
“I think it’s going to be much smaller than we as a society think.”
Both experts said Clancy’s case also raises questions about whether more could have been done before the tragedy, and the level of attention she received.
Spielvogel said postpartum psychosis can be difficult to identify during routine medical appointments.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/16962563/lindsay-clancy-murder-postpartum-psychosis/