{"id":592228,"date":"2026-08-13T17:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592228\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T17:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T17:36:19","slug":"the-lindsay-clancy-trial-brings-maternal-mental-health-into-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/592228\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lindsay Clancy trial brings maternal mental health into the spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Lindsay Clancy\u2019s murder trial<\/a> has centered on the mental health issues the 36-year-old faced after giving birth to her third child.\n <\/p>\n

\n Defense attorneys for the Massachusetts labor and delivery nurse do not deny that Clancy strangled her three children \u2014 Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months \u2014 before jumping from a second-story window of her suburban home in 2023. Instead, they contend that she is not criminally responsible because she was experiencing postpartum psychosis<\/a>, a rare mental health condition.\n <\/p>\n

\n After Callan\u2019s birth, Clancy had taken medication for mental health problems, according to her providers, and had sought help<\/a> from several mental health professionals who testified this week.\n <\/p>\n

\n Prosecutors claim that Patrick Clancy\u2019s descriptions of how he found his children and the methods his wife used<\/a> to strangle them are evidence<\/a> of \u201cdeliberate premeditation, extreme atrocity or cruelty, and the state of mind of the defendant.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Mental health issues are the most common<\/a> complication of pregnancy and parenting, affecting as many as 1 in 5 women<\/a> in the United States during pregnancy and the year after birth. They are also the leading underlying cause of pregnancy-related death in the United States, but they are often overlooked<\/a>. These conditions \u2014 and their treatments \u2014 vary widely.\n <\/p>\n

\n Postpartum psychosis ranks as one of the rarest and most severe mental health disorders associated with childbirth.\n <\/p>\n

\n It affects<\/a> up to 2 of every 1,000 women after childbirth. If a mother has postpartum psychosis, she needs treatment right away: Studies show<\/a> that, untreated, it carries a 4% increased risk of infanticide and a 5% increased risk of suicide.\n <\/p>\n

\n Symptoms typically emerge between two weeks and a year after birth, although about 90%<\/a> of episodes happen within four weeks. They can include irritability, moodiness, restlessness, insomnia and delusional beliefs. The mother may also have auditory or visual hallucinations that drive her to harm herself or the infant.\n <\/p>\n

\n Most women with postpartum psychosis develop manic and depressive symptoms that can come close together or overlap. They may have confusion; dysregulation, in which a person struggles to manage emotional or behavioral responses; or depersonalization, a dissociative state in which a person feels detached from their body or identity.\n <\/p>\n

\n Women with this diagnosis often do not recognize that they have a problem because they are disconnected from reality, a 2024 study found<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s unclear what causes it. There is probably a genetic component, as it\u2019s more likely in people with a family member who\u2019s had it. Women with bipolar disorder are also much more likely<\/a> to develop it.\n <\/p>\n

\n Biological triggers can play a role. People who report a history of sleep loss<\/a> that triggers mania are much more likely to develop postpartum psychosis, and a person with a previous experience<\/a> with postpartum psychosis is more likely to have it again. Acute, severe symptoms typically last two to 12 weeks. With treatment, complete recovery depends on several factors and generally can take six to 12 months or longer.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n This condition can be hard to identify, studies show<\/a>, because symptoms wax and wane, and women may not report them to relatives or healthcare providers.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think, in a way, the name doesn\u2019t help us. It\u2019s called postpartum psychosis, but it\u2019s actually a mood disorder,\u201d said Dr. Lauren M. Osborne, vice chair<\/a> of clinical research in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine.\n <\/p>\n

\"Meghan<\/p>\n

This postpartum psychosis survivor says she was “almost Lindsay Clancy”\n <\/p>\n

\"Meghan<\/p>\n

This postpartum psychosis survivor says she was “almost Lindsay Clancy”<\/p>\n

9:16<\/p>\n

\n Psychiatric disorders are generally divided into mood disorders and psychotic disorders, Osborne said; postpartum psychosis is a mood disorder, in which mood symptoms accompany psychotic symptoms.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe psychotic symptoms that we see are often less obvious than in other psychotic illnesses. So people will often have delusions, meaning a fixed false belief in something. They will less often have something like hallucinations, seeing things, hearing things, and it has a kind of waxing and waning course. A woman can appear to be OK one minute and really not OK the next minute, so it\u2019s hard to catch,\u201d Osborne said.\n <\/p>\n

\n High anxiety, difficulty sleeping, stress and overwhelming concern for the infant can be common, depending on how impairing they are and how long they last, but the larger picture matters, reproductive psychiatrist Dr. Nicole Leistikow said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cPsychosis has this specific definition, but in the postpartum context, it can be much more subtle and difficult to discern than it might be outside of that context,\u201d said Leistikow, who is the clinical director of the Johns Hopkins Reproductive Mental Health Center<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Leistikow noted that there are good screening questions for postpartum depression and anxiety in the perinatal context. \u201cBut we really don\u2019t have a tool that says \u2018boom, you have postpartum psychosis.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"VEERLE<\/p>\n

Women’s health psychiatrist says she “100%” believes that Lindsay Clancy experienced postpartum psychosis\n <\/p>\n

\"VEERLE<\/p>\n

Women’s health psychiatrist says she “100%” believes that Lindsay Clancy experienced postpartum psychosis<\/p>\n

4:20<\/p>\n

\n Treatment often requires hospitalization. Ideally, the mother would be admitted with her baby, but mother-baby treatment units are uncommon in the US, which can be an obstacle to care, Leistikow said. \u201cWhat new mother is willing to risk separation from her infant? That\u2019s incredibly scary and makes it much more difficult for women to come forward.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hospital care typically involves counseling, close monitoring and medication based on symptoms. Second-generation antipsychotics, such as olanzapine, quetiapine and risperidone, are often paired with mood stabilizers such as lithium. Mothers may also receive short-term benzodiazepines to help with sleep and severe agitation.\n <\/p>\n

\n Experts advise families to learn about the condition so they can recognize warning signs.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although postpartum psychosis is rare, Leistikow said, families can take steps to prepare, particularly if the mother has a history of mental illness. Connecting with a provider during pregnancy can help optimize mental health before delivery and establish a baseline. Planning for sleep after birth also matters.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cLet\u2019s proactively make a plan with another responsible, loving, caring adult to help with infant night feedings, so that we\u2019re going to make it more likely than not that you can get a four-to-six-hour chunk of sleep, plus some additional sleep,\u201d Leistikow said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNow we have a whole support network watching for things like insomnia, where a mother is given the opportunity to sleep but still can\u2019t sleep. And if that happens, we want to have postpartum psychosis on our differential, and we want to interrupt quickly to find out what\u2019s happening and see how we can treat the insomnia before that spark becomes a fire and becomes harder to treat.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n More common postpartum mental health issues can also strain parents.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maternal depression is also called postpartum depression<\/a>, peripartum depression, perinatal depression or just PPD. It is not a separate diagnosis in the DSM-5, the manual that psychiatrists use to identify mental health conditions. Instead, it is classified as major depressive disorder.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maternal depression can last weeks or months and can arise during pregnancy or after birth. It can bring sadness that dominates a person\u2019s thoughts about herself and her child.\n <\/p>\n

\n Postpartum depression is common, research shows, affecting about 1 in 7 women<\/a> after giving birth.\n <\/p>\n

\n Symptoms can be mild or severe and can make it difficult to find joy, concentrate or connect with the baby.\n <\/p>\n

\n Treatment depends on symptom severity. Options include talk therapy; support groups; Zurzuvae, the first oral treatment for postpartum depression approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, or anti-anxiety or antidepressant medicines such as Zoloft, Prozac, Cymbalta, Pristiq, Elavil and Tofranil; and lifestyle changes such as getting more rest, walking and eating a healthier diet.\n <\/p>\n

\n PPD does not typically resolve on its own. Even with treatment, antidepressants take a few weeks to work, and not everyone responds the same way.\n <\/p>\n

\n Postpartum anxiety is also common and often overlaps with maternal depression, affecting about 1 in 5 women<\/a>. It can leave a new mother feeling anxious, nervous or worried all the time, with feelings that become overwhelming and affect her ability to function.\n <\/p>\n

\n Symptoms can include sleeplessness, extreme worry about the baby or childbirth, restlessness and a racing heartbeat. This anxiety can also happen with obsessive-compulsive disorder.\n <\/p>\n

\n Maternal anxiety is treated<\/a> with cognitive behavioral therapy, support groups and medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, including sertraline and escitalopram. Cognitive behavioral therapy can teach the woman to identify emotions and change thought patterns.\n <\/p>\n

\n The \u201cbaby blues\u201d are not considered a disorder<\/a>. The phrase describes a common, temporary condition that research shows affects about 80% of people who give birth.\n <\/p>\n

\n A parent with baby blues may have trouble controlling strong emotions, especially sadness, anger, frustration or anxiety. She may cry more often and struggle to sleep.\n <\/p>\n

\n The condition usually is short-lived and resolves without treatment.\n <\/p>\n

\n Although common, postpartum mental health issues are often overlooked, Osborne said, speaking generally about conditions in the first year after birth and not about the Clancy case, with which she has no affiliation.\n <\/p>\n

\n The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends<\/a> screening women at least twice during pregnancy and once after birth for anxiety and depression, the most common disorders.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s a challenging thing logistically to do, and that\u2019s really only going to catch people who currently have symptoms,\u201d Osborne said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to catch people who are at risk of symptoms. And the problem, in a lot of cases, comes in the postpartum, when the standard of care is you see your OB once at six weeks postpartum, but the highest-risk period is six to eight weeks after giving birth. Except for this one snapshot of time, we\u2019re just missing a lot of people, even if we do screen appropriately.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Editor\u2019s note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US, call or text 988 for help. The International Association for Suicide Prevention <\/a>and Befrienders Worldwide<\/a> have contact information for crisis centers around the world.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lindsay Clancy\u2019s murder trial has centered on the mental health issues the 36-year-old faced after giving birth to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[103,61,60,371],"class_list":["post-592228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}