What the Lindsay Clancy Case Teaches Us About Postpartum Psychosis

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Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. The impact of Lindsay Clancy's mistrial this month and what it says about the public's understanding of postpartum psychosis is still being worked out. Lawyers for Clancy, who was on trial for murder in the killing of her three children in 2023, managed to convince all but one member of the Massachusetts jury that she should be acquitted by reason of insanity.

While the deadlock may have left many who were gripped by the trial unsatisfied, those who study and work with mothers experiencing postpartum mental health issues are hoping the public attention on the case will improve awareness and prevention and spur states like California to reassess how postpartum psychosis is treated in both legal and healthcare settings. Listeners, did you follow the Clancy Trial? What questions or emotions did it bring up for you?

Starting us off this hour is Dr. Nirmaljit Dhami, reproductive psychiatrist and the medical director of the Inpatient Perinatal Psychiatry Unit at El Camino Health in Mountain View. Dr. Dhami, welcome to Forum.

Nirmaljit Dhami (2:40)

Thank you. And thank you for having me. And I love the show.

Mina Kim (2:44)

Oh, thank you for saying that. Really appreciate you being on.

Also with us is April Dembosky, KQED health correspondent and author of the forthcoming book, Tell Me I'm Your Man, a story of love, madness and a murder trial. Hi, April.

April Dembosky (2:59)

Hello. Good morning.

Mina Kim (3:01)

Good morning. You know, I've been thinking about you and your work a lot with this Lindsay Clancy trial as someone who's covered postpartum mental health issues and is now writing a book on Insanity Please. What was your reaction to the 11-1 split in the mistrial with 11 jurors in favor of Clancy's acquittal, knowing the sort of horror and heartbreak of her actions?

April Dembosky (3:24)

I was really surprised. You know, there's a common misconception out there among the public that the insanity defense is something that's been overused or abused.

But research shows the opposite. It's actually very rare for people to even attempt an insanity defense, let alone win one. And that's especially true in infanticide cases. The nature of the crime is just so unthinkable that juries have been reluctant to deliver verdicts that seem to somehow excuse the actions. So the fact that this jury came so close was very interesting. You know, part of that could have been a function of the insanity law in Massachusetts, which is different from the law in California. Or it could have simply been how this jury interpreted the facts of this case.

Mina Kim (4:15)

Yeah. Well, let's talk about the facts of this case. First, who was Lindsay Clancy? And what do we know about her mental state in the months leading up to the killings?

April Dembosky (4:25)

Lindsay Clancy, by all accounts of people who spoke at her trial, was a very loving and devoted mother.

She worked as a labor and delivery nurse at a nearby hospital. And she had three kids. And so, you know, they were five, three, and eight months old. So she had her hands full. And for about four months leading up to what happened, she sought the help from a series of different mental health providers. She complained of depression and anxiety and insomnia. She talked to her family and some of her providers about having intrusive thoughts of suicide. About two months before, she was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. And also during this time, the defense presented a list of more than a dozen psychiatric medications that providers had prescribed to Lindsay Clancy. And at a certain point, Clancy started to worry that some of these medications were actually making her feel worse, or at a minimum, all of them were not helping her feel better. Her condition just continued to worsen. So a lot of her appointments were about trying to adjust medications. Her hospital stay, it should be noted, was pretty short.