In the Lindsay Clancy case, polypharmacy is on trial
By
David Carmichael
26/07/2026
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In January 24, 2023, Lindsay Clancy from Duxbury, Massachusetts took the lives of her three young children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old Callan, and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. She entered a not guilty plea at her arraignment on February 7. Her jury trial is starting on July 20 in Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
After Lindsay killed her children, she attempted suicide by taking a large quantity of various medications, cutting her wrists and neck, and jumping from a second-floor window into her backyard. She is now a paraplegic.
Clancy, who is 35 years old, had worked as a labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for nine years before the birth of her third child, Callan, in May of 2022. Friends, family, and co-workers described her as a loving mother. Both her husband Patrick and Lindsay took family leave from their jobs for the next three months, and it was after he returned to work in late August that she became anxious, knowing that she too would soon have to return to work.
Her maternity leave was scheduled to end six weeks later. She sought help from a psychiatrist, who prescribed her the SSRI antidepressant Zoloft to deal with that anxiety. According to Patrick, Lindsay’s mental health deteriorated quickly after she started taking Zoloft.
From October 2022 to January 2023, six healthcare professionals prescribed, deprescribed and/or changed the dosage of Lindsay’s medications; three psychiatrists, two nurse practitioners, and a doctor. Based on the facts in a medical malpractice lawsuit that Lindsay filed against her healthcare providers in January 2026, she had been prescribed 11 different medications in the four months leading up to the homicides, including five antidepressants, three benzodiazepines, and a sleep medication, Ambien.
The prosecution appears to be intent on making a case that Clancy planned the attack, sending her husband out to run an errand and pick up dinner in order to buy herself time to kill their three children. Defense attorney Kevin J. Reddington will argue that she was suffering from postpartum mental illness and overmedication, and thus should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, or be acquitted because she was “involuntarily intoxicated” by the drugs.
As you can see by my bio, I took the life of my 11-year-old son, Ian, in 2004, three weeks after starting the SSRI antidepressant Paxil. I know how a psychiatric drug can take hold of your mind and push you into a psychotic state, and I hope that the jurors in this case ultimately will address this question: Is there any possibility that Lindsay Clancy, known by her friends and co-workers as a loving mother, would have killed her children if not for the intoxicating effects of the multiple psychiatric drugs she was on?
In January of this year, Patrick also filed a separate civil lawsuit against the providers of Lindsay’s psychiatric care. In his lawsuit, Patrick told of how after Callan was born, for the next three months both he and Lindsay were on family leave from their work, and they were both happy and well. In her lawsuit, Lindsay is described as hypomanic during these summer months, exercising very early in the morning, a routine that was described as impulsive.
On September 12, 2022, feeling stressed and anxious about returning to work, as her family leave was about to expire, she scheduled an appointment with a psychiatrist and was prescribed Zoloft as a remedy. Lindsay initially didn’t take the medication, as she thought it would interfere with her breastfeeding. However, in mid October, she decided to take the Zoloft.
Here is the record of her psychiatric treatment over the next three months, which was detailed in the civil lawsuit for medical malpractice that Lindsay filed:
• After she started taking the Zoloft, her psychiatrist increased her dose from 25 mg to 50 mg. Lindsay didn’t sleep for 48 hours, had racing thoughts, worsening anxiety, and felt “awful.”
• On October 20, Lindsay reported these adverse reactions to her psychiatrist. Her prescription for Zoloft was discontinued and she was prescribed Ativan and Benadryl for sleep.
• Lindsay’s insomnia persisted and she started having heart palpitations. Her mental health continued to deteriorate.
• On November 16, Lindsay’s insomnia had become so severe that she took herself to the emergency room at South Shore Hospital in Massachusetts. She reported insomnia, anxiety, and heart palpitations. A doctor prescribed Trazodone for sleep.
• On November 20, Patrick’s mother, a nurse at South Shore Hospital, contacted the South Shore Prenatal Behavioural Health Program seeking additional help for Lindsay because Trazodone was not effective at helping her sleep. A nurse practitioner reached out to Lindsay.
• On November 21, Lindsay told the nurse practitioner that she was “very frustrated and scared,” experiencing “extreme insomnia,” averaging only three to four hours of sleep a night, and was having racing thoughts. The nurse practitioner prescribed Prozac.
• After four days on Prozac, Lindsay reported that the medication made her insomnia worse. She informed the providers and Prozac was discontinued.
• On November 25, the nurse practitioner prescribed Ambien, Remeron and Klonopin.
• On November 26, after taking Remeron, Lindsay experienced dissociation. She perceived the world around her as unreal, distorted and distant. She was unable to determine what was real. Lindsay became disoriented, forgetful, confused, and disconnected from her own body. She was unable to drive and to be alone.
• On November 28, Lindsay reported these symptoms to her providers, noting that she was still struggling, sleeping only three to four hours a night, and feeling disoriented and forgetful.
• On November 29, Lindsay started being treated by a different nurse practitioner. Lindsay reported that she was “anxious and frightened about what is happening” and that she blamed herself. The nurse practitioner prescribed Seroquel.
• After taking Seroquel, Lindsay developed suicidal ideation and began experiencing auditory hallucinations. The voice said “I will not be the same. I want to die.” She told Patrick, her parents and providers that her emotional state was “emotionless” and “like a zombie,” attributing this profound affective blunting to Seroquel.
• On December 2, Lindsay told the nurse practitioner that she had lost fifteen pounds, had no appetite, was experiencing panic attacks and confusion, and had a lack of attention over the past four days.
• On December 4, Lindsay was so frightened by the hallucinations that she called the New Bedford Suicide Hotline seeking help. She was told it was not an emergency because she didn’t have a specific plan about how she was going to kill herself.
• On December 5, Lindsay met virtually with an ASPIRE Crisis Support clinician seeking help. She was told that she didn’t meet the criteria for inpatient treatment because she didn’t have a suicide plan.
• On December 6, Patrick attended an appointment with Lindsay and the nurse practitioner. Patrick connected Lindsay’s suicidal thoughts to the Seroquel. He told the nurse practitioner that “Lindsay is ten thousand times worse since she has taken medication” and asked the nurse practitioner if they could “get Lindsay off medications and start from scratch to see what is going on.” He asked if there could be some mistake, like using wrong medications. The nurse practitioner acknowledged that it was possible. Despite this, the nurse practitioner continued to increase the Seroquel dosage towards 400 mg per day.
• On December 13, Lindsay was deeply depressed, wasn’t motivated to do anything, and still had suicidal ideation. She wanted “this to be all over.”
• On December 15, Patrick called the nurse practitioner’s office to report that “Lindsay has had a devastating week” and that today was the worst day for Lindsay. He explained that Lindsay felt debilitated, had no interest in anything, was exhausted, and could not get out of bed. She had horrible thoughts all day and auditory hallucinations all day, every day. The hallucinations were loud and continued all day saying, “I will never be the same,” “I will never be me again,” and “You are damaged. You will never be the same. The only option is to die.”
• Lindsay told Patrick, and her mother, that she had thoughts of harming her children. Lindsay was afraid of being locked in a hospital and having her children taken away.
• On December 20, Lindsay went to the Massachusetts General Hospital emergency room seeking help because her suicidal thoughts were escalating. They suggested either admission to McLean Hospital or the partial hospitalisation day program at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island.
• On December 21, Lindsay admitted herself into the partial hospitalisation day program at Women & Infants Hospital in Providence, where she reported that she was numb to all emotion, feeling crazy, and depressed. She said that her “life is becoming a disaster,” that she was afraid and “messed up beyond repair.” Lindsay explained that she had lost 15 pounds in a month, wasn’t motivated to do anything, and that “it takes all of her effort in the world just to breathe.”
• The psychiatrist accepted Lindsay and Patrick’s belief that her symptoms were due to overmedication and recommended weaning her off Seroquel. The clinical team at Women & Infants concluded that Lindsay’s symptoms were pharmacologically induced so the day program was not appropriate for her.
• After Lindsay started reducing her Seroquel, her suicidal ideation “resurged.”
• On December 29, Lindsay told Patrick that “I can’t tough it out anymore. I need to go to McLean.”
• On December 30, Lindsay went to the emergency room at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was told she should admit herself to a psychiatric hospital.
• On December 30, Lindsay admitted herself to McLean Hospital. Lindsay told staff that she was experiencing suicidal ideation, feeling detached, hopeless, and depressed, had no appetite or energy to perform daily activities, wasn’t motivated to do anything or enjoying anything anymore, had racing thoughts, wasn’t able to organize her thoughts, and was experiencing memory problems, anxiety, and insomnia.
• On January 3, 2023, Lindsay saw a doctor for the first time at McLean Hospital. The doctor advised Lindsay to stop Seroquel and the benzodiazepines and prescribed trazodone for sleep.
• On January 4, Lindsay asked if she could go home for Cora’s birthday. She was approved for discharge. The staff at McLean Hospital also suggested taking amitriptyline.
• On January 7, Lindsay was not herself at Cora’s birthday party. She smiled but did not converse. Lindsay avoided talking and could not make sense of what others were saying.
• Lindsay’s auditory hallucinations resumed a week after she was discharged from McLean Hospital.
• On January 10, Lindsay returned to the first psychiatrist and was prescribed Valium.
• On January 17, the psychiatrist prescribed amitriptyline at 10 mg per day.
• On January 20, because she was having such awful thoughts and was so numb and emotionless, Lindsay researched “What is a psychopath?” to see if she was one, and whether there was a cure.
• On January 23, Lindsay told her psychiatrist that she was a “little more anxious,” particularly in the morning. The psychiatrist increased the dosage of amitriptyline to 20 mg per day. That night, Lindsay didn’t sleep.
• On January 24, Lindsay was severely depressed with suicidal thoughts. She had suicidal hallucinations all day, nonstop. Later in the afternoon, a male voice began saying “You should harm the children.” When Patrick left to get takeout food for dinner, there was a loud, demanding, repetitious command from the male voice saying “This is your last chance. Kill the children so you can kill yourself.” Lindsay felt an overwhelming, irresistible compulsion to comply, entering a “dream-like state” where her physical actions felt utterly disconnected from her conscious volition and strangled her three children, then attempted suicide.
• Cora and Dawson died that evening, and Callan died on January 27.
That is her record of psychiatric care. It tells of how Lindsay Clancy steadily worsened while under the influence of psychiatric drugs, and how at each step she desperately sought medical help. This is the record that would support an acquittal of involuntary intoxication, which I believe would be the just verdict in this tragic case.
***
Mad in Ireland hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own. This post first appeared on Mad in America
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