04/08/2026
Itās so sad to see this happen!
We know better, we should have done better!
That poor family..they live with the consequences of this breakdown and mistreatment for the rest of their lives!
As a HCP who works with perinatal mental health as a focus, this breaks my heart. š
Perinatal depression and anxiety affects 1:5-7 women.
Perinatal anxiety and depression affects 1:10 men. Postpartum psychosis affects 1:1000 women
Reach out for help, GP, Gidget Foundation, PANDA, Lifeline, helpline, Black Dog Institute, ā when, your maternal child health nurse, mental heath services 1800 011 511 in NSW, triple 000, ***de callback line. Links in comments.
This case is one of the most devastating examples of how a healthcare system can fail a patient and an entire family. I am feeling all kinds of things reading how she was handled by these providers, and "crisis" facilities.
If this documented timeline is accurate, there were repeated cries for help: severe insomnia, racing thoughts, worsening anxiety, palpitations, confusion, derealization, inability to distinguish what was real, suicidal thoughts, hallucinations, multiple ER visits, crisis calls, and desperate pleas that she was getting worse.
Yet the nauseating response appeared to be the same over and over again: another medication, another dose adjustment, another prescription.
This woman, her husband and their children were failed so unbelievably bad.
I do not believe we should walk away from cases like this without asking seriously difficult questions.
š Thinking of Lindsay, Patrick, their beautiful children, and everyone whose lives have been forever changed by this unimaginable tragedy.
Something has to change.
~~~~
Two months before Lindsay Clancy killed her three children, she reportedly told her prescriber she could no longer determine what was real. She described feeling disoriented, forgetful, confused, and disconnected.
The medications continued.
Hereās the reported timeline: (I can't even believe this...)
ā¢ Mid-October 2022: Started on Zoloft 25 mg, increased within days to 50 mg.
ā¢ She reported not sleeping for 48 hours, racing thoughts, worsening anxiety.
ā¢ October 20: Reported heart palpitations and worsening mental health.
ā¢ Zoloft was discontinued. Ativan and Benadryl were prescribed.
ā¢ November 16: Emergency room visit for insomnia, anxiety, and palpitations.
ā¢ Discharged with trazodone.
ā¢ November 20: Evaluated through a perinatal behavioral health program after family sought help.
ā¢ Reported feeling āvery frustratedā and āscaredā with profound insomnia and racing thoughts.
ā¢ Prozac was prescribed.
ā¢ November 24: Reported Prozac worsened her insomnia.
ā¢ Ambien, Remeron, and Klonopin were added.
ā¢ The following day she reported she could no longer determine what was real. She described being disoriented, forgetful, confused, and disconnected.
ā¢ November 28: Sleeping only about three hours, frightened and disoriented.
ā¢ Seroquel was prescribed.
ā¢ December 2: Reported suicidal thoughts and hearing voices.
ā¢ Three days later she called a crisis hotline requesting admission but reportedly did "not meet admission criteria".
ā¢ December 6: Her husband accompanied her to an appointment and reportedly stated she had significantly worsened after starting Seroquel.
ā¢ The dose was increased.
ā¢ December 20: Returned to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts.
ā¢ She entered one treatment program but was reportedly discharged after a physician believed overmedication - not a primary psychiatric illness - was driving her presentation.
ā¢ She was admitted elsewhere and later discharged with trazodone.
ā¢ January 10: Prescribed Va**um and later amitriptyline.
ā¢ January 24: She reportedly described hearing a male voice telling her to kill her children before killing herself.
Her children were 5 years old, 3 years old, and 8 months old.
By that point, she had reportedly been prescribed 13 psychiatric medications or medication changes in approximately four months.
This was horrifying for me to read. This woman had severe sleep deprivation. She was turned away from getting help, and medicated, and continually overmedicated.
WAS ANYONE thinking, caring or asking some questions??
- Were medication adverse effects, drug interactions, paradoxical reactions, activation, akathisia, withdrawal, postpartum psychiatric illness, neurological disease, hormonal changes, or other medical conditions fully reconsidered as her symptoms escalated???
- When someone repeatedly says, āIām getting worse,ā shouldnāt that trigger a comprehensive reassessment, rather than simply another prescription??? ESPECIALLY those meds??
Honestly! As a holistic provider, I strongly believe this is where medicine must evolve.
Whole-person care does not mean rejecting medication; medications save lives every day, and are absolutely appropriate for many patients.
But **medication should never replace ongoing critical thinking**!!!
When an individual's condition rapidly deteriorates - ESPECIALLY after medications are started or changed - we should pause and ASK:
ā¢ Is the diagnosis still correct?
ā¢ Could the treatment (drug) itself be contributing to or causing the symptoms?
ā¢ Are we seeing adverse effects, drug interactions, or withdrawal?
ā¢ Has profound sleep deprivation become a medical emergency for this person??
ā¢ Have we evaluated endocrine, metabolic, neurologic, inflammatory, infectious, nutritional, and postpartum contributors?
ā¢ Does this patient need a multidisciplinary team **instead of another prescription**??
People deserve physicians, holistic practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, pharmacists, nurses and families who communicate with one another, not isolated providers treating individual symptoms and throwing more drugs at them or saying there's nothing wrong when clearly there is.
NO ONE should fall through the cracks like this.
I really, deeply hope this becomes a catalyst for better monitoring, better care, integrated care, safer & more responsible prescribing, and seriously - the humility to ask whether the current treatment plan is truly helping, or making them worse.
We owe every individual, and their families, better than this.
Soapbox over. ā¤ļø
I donāt usually rant on here, but this one broke my heart. If this tragedy encourages even one clinician to pause, ask more questions, review the medications, or look beyond the next prescription, then this post was worth writing.
