OHSU Doctor Says Killings Rare in Postpartum Psychosis Cases
PORTLAND, Ore. — A closely watched triple murder case in Massachusetts ends in a mistrial. A single juror could not agree with 11 others to acquit Lindsay Clancy, who strangled her three children in 2023. Clancy’s legal team used an insanity defense, saying the mother suffered from postpartum psychosis. Oregon Health and Science University’s Dr. Arundhati Headrick treats patients with that diagnosis. She says it very rarely results in a mother killing her own children.
”I worked with several women who have a diagnosis of bipolar one disorder and they’re actually the women who are at high risk for postpartum psychosis. But there are absolutely some women who develop postpartum psychosis with no prior mental health history. But I have worked with women who have experienced either postpartum mania or postpartum psychosis and it truly is something that requires such immediate assessment and treatment oftentimes requires inpatient hospitalization both for the woman’s safety but also the safety of her baby. So it can be challenging to treat it particularly I think as an outpatient and, we really have to make sure there’s really strong family support and that they’re connected with crisis resources so it really is wrap-around treatment.”
In the U,.S., defendants on trial for murder must prove they did not understand what they were doing, or that it was wrong, for an insanity defense. Now that the judge in the Clancy case declared a mistrial, prosecutors could push forward to restart the trial with a new jury, negotiate a plea, or dismiss the charges.