Lindsay Clancy trial - Psychiatry's Reckoning.

Lindsay Clancy’s trial has grabbed the nation’s attention. I remember reading about this tragedy when it happened in January 2023. Even back then, what stood out for me (and maybe to the reporters writing about this tragedy) were the sheer number of medications she was prescribed in a short span of time. I did not have information back then. Now, a lot of information is publicly available.

However, I have not personally evalauted Lindsay. I have not reviewed her medical/psychiatric records, I am not in any manner directly involved with this situation. Please read the following paragraphs with this in mind. I am sharing my thoughts, ideas, reactions; hoping that this will be ‘The Reckoning for Psychiatry’. Finally, the field of psychiatry will hopefully be held accountable for the many harms it has unleashed on the American population (and by extension on the world) over the last 50+ years.

I am writing this article to show the pitfalls of her psychiatric treatment and how this tragedy may have been averted if Lindsay had received the proper care and attention she needed. This article does not speculate on the many ‘alternate’ theories going around on the internet. I am not opining on whether she committed the murders or not. By default I am going by the report that she committed these crimes and then attempted suicide. I am only focused on her psychiatric symptoms and how her life unraveled between Aug 2022 and January 2023. And exploring the role (if any) that her psychiatric treatment played in this unraveling.

Thank you to @bipolarhealed2010 for this image.

Briefly, here’s what happened: On January 24th, 2023, Lindsay Clancy, 36, a labor and delivery Nurse from Duxbury, MA, (allegedly) strangled her 3 kids Cora, 5, Dawson, 3 & Callan, 8 months, to death before attempting suicide herself. She is paralyzed waist down as a result of her attempted suicide and is now facing a trial to determine her guilt and culpability. Prosecution argues the murders were planned, deliberate, and carried out rationally; while Lindsay’s attorneys are arguing that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis, bipolar disorder, and experiencing "command hallucinations".

I am basing my hypothetical conclusions on some of the documents publicly available. I have listened to part of the trial proceedings and I have read this journalistic report which provides a detailed timeline of Lindsay’s symptoms and treatment, including her past history:

Here’s my understanding of Lindsay: Lindsay was a married young woman with 3 kids under the age of 5, in what appears on the surface to be a regular upper middle class, typical, suburban, white family. She was a labor and delivery nurse. She is universally described as a dedicated, involved, loving, attentive, caring mother. It feels like she did much of the heavy lifting in parenting and the impression I got from my review of material is that her husband was more hands-off. Her facebook posts show a young mom struggling to juggle many things. In reading some of her posts and her journal entries, I picked up on perfectionism tendencies and possibly obsessive personality traits. She was struggling with her son, Dawson’s behavioral issues and experiencing stress around him (according to her facebook posts). She was also aware of her own MTHFR gene status and that she was a poor methylator (also per her facebook posts).

Her 3rd child, Callan, was born on 26th May 2022. Following Callan’s birth, she was on an 18 week approved maternity leave (I was surprised to find this - its actually a generous leave per US standards), extended her leave into fall 2022 because of her mental health struggles and eventually quit her job for her health reasons.

It looks like Lindsay began to experience mental health struggles by the time Callan was 12 weeks old. Anxiety, insomnia were the main concerns initially.

Here is a timeline:

1. In 2012, Lindsay was diagnosed with anxiety and depression and was prescribed prozac and wellbutrin. Assuming she took them, there is no report of ‘switching to bipolar.’

2. After birth of both her older children, she had some anxiety but not enough to be treated with meds and she bounced back. Anxiety increased after each delivery.

3. After Callan’s birth, life was ‘idyllic’ for 12 weeks. Anxiety, insomnia, depression symptoms emerged when Patrick had to go back to work and as Lindsay’s own maternity leave was drawing to a close. This transition may have been the stress factor.

4. From Aug 2022, Lindsay’s symptoms began to increase. She was started on meds in September 2022, first with zoloft. She felt more activated and symptoms worsened. From here, began the Russian Roulette and whack-a-mole game with her symptoms and medications thrown at her.

5. I recommend that you read the report from CT insider for the full timeline.

Between Sept 2022 and January 2023, Lindsay was prescribed 13 medications. Zoloft, Ativan, Trazodone, Zolpidem, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Fluoxetine, Hydroxyzine, Lamotrigine, Mirtazepine, Seroquel, Buspirone, Amitryptiline.

We have very little information regarding her medical work up prior to prescribing any medication. There is no information regarding evaluation of her social network, support system, marital harmony vs stress, financial stress, who she was as a human and her unique struggles.

The internet is pouring its rage towards Dr Tufts and all the other mental health providers Lindsay sought help from, including the most prestigious McLean hospital. It is easy to say all the doctors, therapists, Psych NP’s involved here were incompetent or grossly negligent towards Lindsay. I know it looks that way. They certainly have their share of blame.

However, this is the feature of the system, not a bug. Every single person who Lindsay met with for her mental health struggles were following ‘standard of care.’ And, then left it to the vagaries of psychiatry as in: “Psychiatry is not an exact science, we go by what the patient says, psychiatric illnesses can only be managed, the only thing we know of mental illness is that there could be a chemical imbalance and we treat it with psychiatric drugs, patients have to be compliant and honest, we cannot read minds, etc.”

Here is my hypotheses:

1. Lindsay was likely a high strung, perfectionistic, slightly obsessive woman and mother who deeply cared for her children.

2. She was diagnosed and treated for anxiety/depression with 2 antidpressants (prozac and wellbutrin) while in nursing school. There was no switch to bipolar disorder at that time, even with wellbutrin, which is a more activating antidepressant.

3. With each pregnancy, her stress and anxiety was worse. Add to this, the stress of the pandemic, being a healthcare worker during and after the pandemic, while also raising a young family. What kind of toll did it take on her personally?

4. Once the medications started in Sept 2022, she worsened progressively - first with insomnia, activation, then hallucinations, and suicidal/homicidal ideas. Why did she react so poorly this time when she may have tolerated antidepressants in the past? Was it the toll of frequent childbirth on her body, was it the effect of the pandemic, was it the vaccines she received as a healthcare worker and during her pregnancies, was it specifically from the covid vaccines, was it marital stress, was it lack of adequate support, was it financial stress and pressure to go back to work, was it a kind of sensitization to psychiatric drugs from previous exposure? So many questions and none were explored.

5. What strikes me is that these symptoms were intermittent and she was still functioning fairly well. At least well enough for her husband and the father to leave her alone with the kids.

6. I am making the assumption that she truly presented as a functioning person to her husband as well as to the many providers she sought help from. Which is why everyone was taken by surprise by this tragedy. In other words, she was experiencing an ‘incomplete syndrome’ or a ‘fragmented presentation.’

7. What I am sharing here comes from decades of experience working with people struggling with all kinds of mental illnesses. This is the subtler art of being a physician that cannot be easily articulated. I will try. A person who develops a psychotic episode naturally (not under the influence of any psychoactive drug) has a certain uniformity in their presentation - a global, gradual, decline - a subtle change in personality, withdrawn, internally preoccupied, more anxiety, irritability, insomnia, poor self care, anomolies in thinking and speech that alerts people around them, and then irrational behavior likely under the influence of hallucinations and delusions. In such cases, everyone around the patient is easily able to recognize the abnormality and act accordingly. This pattern applies to women in the post partum period as well. No one (not family, not friends, and not providers) is baffled by any irrational behavior.

8. In contrast, Lindsay appears to have been self aware, articulate, reaching out multiple times, expressing her distress and even her conclusions as to why she could be having more symptoms. Many times she identified the drugs as causing her the intrusive thoughts to harm her kids and herself. But all this fell on deaf ears, and likely false reassurances. Through all this, she presented as a rational, articulate, reasonable woman. In this regard I make the argument that all of her treating doctors were NOT incompetent in missing her psychosis or derangement. They all uniformly documented that she appeared ‘sane,’ even while reporting the distressing symptoms. This is the disconnect between how she presented and the eventual tragedy.

9. And leads to my main argument. Bceause of the ‘fragmented presentation’, I am concluding that Lindsay was suffering from ‘chemical brain injury,’ from the various psychiatric drugs. From her own report she identified zoloft and then seroquel as the main culprits. In making this argument, I refute the theory of “antidepressants uncover latent bipolar.” There is no scientific evidence for this theory. In contrast, I posit that the many newly diagnosed ‘bipolar’ patients are likely victims of psychiatric drug induced chemical brain injury. Robert Whitaker’s book, ‘Anatomy of an epidemic’ provides many rational arguments and scientific evidence for this idea. The likely reasons she reacted poorly this time around to psychiatric drugs was covered in point 4 above. Those reasons need proper investigation.

10. In support of my hypothesis of ‘chemical brain injury secondary to psychiatric drugs,’ I am sharing David Carmichael’s and David Crespi’s stories.

11. David Carmichael was acquitted of his crime because his defense team was able to prove that he was in a paroxetine (antidepressant) induced psychotic state when he killed his 11 yr old son. Here is an excerpt from his website: “In July 2004, shortly after I started taking Paxil (paroxetine) again for anxiety caused by sleep deprivation, after being off it for four months, I had a psychotic episode (rare side effect of Paxil) and planned, appeared normal and then calmly took the life of my 11-year-old son, Ian, on July 31 in London, Canada and was charged with first-degree murder….I thought taking Ian’s life was morally right because of five delusions, which made no sense to me when I was no longer psychotic two weeks after I was arrested and immediately taken off Paxil (paroxetine)”

12. David Crespi’s story is from National Post site: “In 2006, North Carolina bank auditor David Crespi was treating his depression with a “cocktail” of medications when he stabbed and killed his five-year-old twin girls, Sam and Tess. After pleading guilty to murder in a deal struck to avoid execution, Crespi — 45 at the time of his daughters’ deaths — began serving a life sentence. But his wife, Kim, has launched a campaign and website devoted to freeing her husband from jail, insisting that he had been “such a good dad” and that his “unbelievable” act of violence could only be explained as a result of the anti-depressant pills he was taking at the time.” 18 years later, Crespi is still serving time in prison.

13. There are striking similarities in all these tragedies (Carmichael, Crespi and Clancy):

    1. All 3 of them were described as regular people - married, stable, loving parents to their children.

    2. All 3 of them were recently prescribed psychiatric drugs. 2 (carmichael and Clancy) of them were on psychiatric drugs before, then stopped and got back on them again.

    3. All 3 of them ‘suddenly’ committed unimaginably horrific crimes against their own children. For all 3 of them, this was a complete break from who they are as people and personalities.

    4. All 3 of them believe their drugs caused them to be this way.

    5. Carmcichael (from his own report) and Clancy (from observer reports) ‘appeared rational, normal, and carried out their acts in a planned manner.’ I do not know Crespi’s situation in this regard.

    6. All 3 of them are horrified, are deeply saddened and genuinely remorseful of their actions. Its almost like they are baffled by it themselves. They do not recognize or identify the version of them that committed these horrific acts.

14. I am aware that ‘filicide’ (intentional act of a parent killing their own child or step-child) has many motives and has occurred due to various psychiatric illnesses themselves. However, I believe that a subset of filicide may be from the ‘toxic effect of psychiatric drugs.’ This hypothesis merits attention and investigation.

Beyond shedding light on psychiatric med harms, I also want to draw attention to the fact that psychiatry as an industry has lost its way. Mental illnesses need to be understood differently, evaluated to uncover root causes, and treatments have to be in line with root cause evalautions.

We need a different framework to understand what causes mental illness as the ‘chemical imbalance’ theory has no scientific merit (despite what is being said by psychiatrists on trial in the Clancy case).

Many years ago, I became aware of the many dangers in the field of psychiatry and was dismayed with the lack of progress in patients. My own chronic health issues made me question everything. I pursued education in Ayurveda and Functional Medicine and since 2016, I have developed a system of enquiry, thinking, and solutions that works for patients who choose to work with me.

In essence, I regard mental illnesses as a sign of a larger breakdown in the psycho-physiological functioning within a person. It is a breakdown of fucntioning within the body-mind-spirit system. From my experience, it is a breakdown caused by essentially ONLY 3 root causes encapsulated in my DTT™Framework of root causes - Diet/lifestyle, Trauma and Toxins. I use this framework as it helps me pay attention to the many variables that can be contributing to a person’s mental illness. (Dr Robert Naviaux’s work on cell danger response supports my DTT™ framework). Based on this framework I recommend labs to understand a specific person’s root causes. These labs can be found here.

Next, based on the information gathered, I recommend a comprehensive plan that includes diet/lifestyle changes, herbs, supplements, individual/family therapy, and other modes of intervention a patient may need, for eg: filling out FMLA paperwork for a family member so they can care for the patient.

So, if a patient like Lindsay sought my care, here is how I would evaluate and treat:
1. Evaluate her root causes using the DTT™ Framework of root causes - Diet/lifestyle, Trauma & Toxins.
2. Check labs - inflammation markers, nutrition markers (she had 3 babies in less than 5 years, hello!), mitochondrial function (insomnia is actually from mitochondrial dysfunction), gut function, microbiome analysis, MTHFR gene status (she had low methylation), neurotransmitter function, mold toxicity, environmental toxins, immune activation by covid virus of from covid vacccines, etc.
3. Evaluate trauma and stress - from childhood as well as in present times, evaluate her support system, marital relationship, educate husband and parents/in laws to rally around her to provide rest, emotional support, love, nurturing. I would explore her self worth and what she is tolerating in her life to be loved and accepted.
4. I would specifically evaluate for long haul covid and for covid vaccine injury and treat accordingly - eg: if needed, I would recommend augmented NAC from zerospike project.
5. Optimize nutrition according to Ayurveda* (I suspect mainly Vata imbalance and so I would recommend a Vata pacifying diet), with healthy fats, modify her exercise regimen so it is Vata balancing, teach breathwork and pranayama, recommend weekly abhyanga massage with Dosha specific Ayurvedic herbal oils and Shirodhara, at least x3 per week.

6. Recommend supplements such as high dose fish oil, inositol, PharmaGABA, Magnesium and specific Ayurvedic herbs for her Dosha balance. Nervous system regulation practices to soothe her nerves.
7. Recommend weekly supportive psychotherapy, counsel husband and educate how to show up for her.
8. Monitor mom-baby bonding and continue breast feeding for as long as possible.
9. I would not have given her any Psych meds in August of 2022.
10. Sign FMLA paperwork so she can get short term or long term disability and help protect her job.

Now, let’s compare the plan above to Lindsay’s plan which is ‘standard of care’ plan.

Bottom line: Mental illness is not caused by any chemical imbalance. Psychiatric drugs have no role to play in mental wellbeing. They can be useful short term (few days to less than month) to curb distressing symptoms and have to be always offered with root cause evaluation and treatments. Based on my research and practical experience, I believe psych drugs cause chemical brain injury. We have to acknowledge and act accordingly if we are to prevent such tragedies.

*Ayurveda newbies may be thrown away by many terms mentioned in this article. I have provided links to educational articles about these terms. Ayurveda can be a game changer for women as it offers ‘Garbha Sanskar,’ a whole system of care for the pregnant mom and developing baby, that ideally begins 3 months before conception and continues till birth of the baby. This is followed by “Sutika Kala Paricharya” - a system of care for the new mom and baby to help mom recover her vitality post pregnancy; while caring, nursing, and bonding with her baby. The Sutika (woman who just gave birth) Kala (period of time) lasts for 6 weeks (42 days) after delivery. The beauty of these ancient Ayurvedic wisdom traditions is that it is at once preventive and curative. Sutika kala practices are to be applied universally to all post partum women for 6 weeks. As a medical system, Ayurveda also identifies various ‘Sutika Roga’ with specific recommendations for them. Roga translates to illness. I received a form of this care after both my deliveries and I know my health bounced back because of it.