ABLECHILD: Psychiatric Experimental Drug Cocktails on Trial in Massachusetts

 

Psychiatric Experimental Drug Cocktails on Trial in Massachusetts

Republished with permission from AbleChild.

“If defendants had not acted negligently, and rather had provided adequate care, it is more likely than not that Patrick and Lindsay’s children would still be alive today.” This is the summation of the lawsuit brought by Patrick Clancy against the mental health practitioners responsible for the “treatment” of his wife, Lindsay, who is being tried for the murder of their three small children.

To say that this is an exceptional lawsuit is an understatement. While not precedent setting, it is extraordinary from the standpoint of attempting to hold the prescribing psychiatrists responsible for the deadly outcome of their drug cocktail “treatments.” Yes. It is time that the careless experimentation with cocktails of prescription psychiatric drugs be laid bare.

In September of 2022, having experienced anxiety about returning to work after the birth of her third child, registered nurse Lindsay Clancy sought out psychiatric treatment and was diagnosed with “chronic generalized anxiety disorder and chronic adjustment disorder with depressed mood” and was prescribed the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft). By all accounts, Lindsay’s mental state got worse, not better and “was paranoid of getting suicidal thoughts, something bad happening, doesn’t want to be alone.”

By November of that year, Lindsay’s mental health had deteriorated to the point of her seeking emergency room treatment where she was prescribed a second antidepressant, trazodone, which was not effective. A third antidepressant, fluoxetine (Prozac) was prescribed to Lindsay who reported feeling “spacey and disconnected…”

At the same time, Lindsay was prescribed zolpidem tartrate (Ambien), mirtazapine (Remeron), and clonazepam (Klonopin) – a sedative, antidepressant and a benzodiazepine. This additional drug cocktail did not help Lindsay, and she reported “still feeling disoriented, forgetful, not connected to her body” … “when she wakes up, she is feeling ‘hung over’ and petrified that she is becoming ‘addicted to benzos.’”  Quetiapine Fumarate (Seroquel) an antipsychotic was prescribed.

By the end of November of 2022, Lindsay had been prescribed mind-altering drug cocktails by three practitioners. Lindsay admitted that she had “experienced intrusive thoughts of wanting to die and had contacted ASPIRE Crisis support.” Husband Patrick attended a visit with Lindsay’s prescriber and advised that Lindsay’s anxiety had “become significantly worse since starting psychiatric medications.” Lindsay’s Zoloft was increased and Diazepam (Valium), another benzodiazepine, was added to her cocktail of mind-altering drugs.

Lindsay had been experiencing suicidal ideation throughout the month of December 2022, and was prescribed lamotrigine (Lamictal), an anticonvulsant and mood stabilizer. Near the end of December of 2022, Lindsay admitted herself into Women & Infants hospital and reported experiencing “suicidal ideation, heart palpitations, severe depression, a feeling of numbness, that her life was becoming a disaster.”

Lindsay had a final psychiatric appointment on January 23rd of 2023. The 17-minute appointment reported that Lindsay was “a little more anxious plus heart racing and she was noticing more AM anxiety.” The psychiatrist reported that Lindsay’s mood was “the same flat/anxious,” no motivation, numb” and that she “has to force herself up and out of the house.” Lindsay’s “sleep and medication efficacy were poor, her insight was poor and her psychiatric condition generally was unchanged.”

According to medical records, Lindsay “started hearing a compelling and unrecognizable singular male voice that told her, ‘This is your last chance’ and that she had to ‘take them with her.’”  “The voice indicated to her that she should die, and this is her last chance, and that her children would suffer if she was gone.”

One day after her last appointment with her psychiatrist, Lindsay strangled her three children, cut her own wrists and neck and jumped out of a second-floor window of her home. Lindsay suffered traumatic spinal cord injuries and is paralyzed below the sternum.

In a four-month period, Lindsay Clancy sought treatment for anxiety and received nearly a dozen prescribed mind-altering drugs in a variety of cocktails that could easily be referred to as a chemical lobotomy and drugged into a mind-numbing stupor.

Given that none of the psychiatric drugs in question had ever been tested together in clinical trials, Patrick Clancy’s attorneys may want to know what science or medicine was used to determine the cocktails of psychotropic drugs that would be used as appropriate “treatment” for Lindsay. Those same attorneys may want to know why Lindsay’s psychiatrists never ordered any tests that may have, at a minimum, ruled out any medical problem and have some understanding of what the drug levels were in Lindsay’s system.

Of course, the most obvious problem with Lindsay’s care was the fact that despite repeatedly advising her mental health practitioners about the strange and concerning feelings of self-harm and emotional numbness, the answer continually revolved around tweaking current drug cocktails or adding new drugs to the experimentation.

Lindsay’s mental health practitioners, Jennifer A. Tufts, M.D., Rebecca H. Jollotta, C.N.P, Aster Mental Health Inc., and South Shore Health Systems, should have known that the possible serious side effects of just a single drug, let alone cocktails of drugs, could have induced Lindsay’s violent behavior.

For example, let’s consider the possible serious side effects of the antidepressant Zoloft and the antipsychotic Seroquel. Taken together Lindsay could have experienced adverse side effects of this drug cocktail that included agitation, abnormal dreams, aggression, anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, nightmares, suicidal behavior, suicidal ideation, suicide-related events, abnormal thinking, delusions, depersonalization, hallucinations, paranoid reaction, psychosis, sleep walking, aggravated depression, aggressive reaction, mania, psychotic disorder, intense dreams, sleep disturbances and suicide attempt.

Patrick Clancy’s attorneys must establish each of the drug cocktails that were prescribed, the duration of each of the drug cocktails and how often the drugs were tweaked or when new drugs were added to Lindsay’s experimental cocktail.

It is also imperative that Clancy’s attorneys establish how the mental health practitioners anticipated how each of the drug cocktails that were prescribed would “work” as treatment and what were the drug cocktail treatment expectations that surely must have been explained to Lindsay. If those expectations were not explained, why not?

Three children are dead, a once healthy and vibrant wife and mother is a paraplegic on trial for murder, and a husband mourns the loss of his family. That a lawsuit has been filed that may finally address the unchecked experimentation with psychotropic drugs is a win for informed consent.

Despite the drug experimentation, Lindsay did not get better and, in fact, Lindsay only got worse after taking the prescribed cocktails of drugs. While tragic, the information that comes from this trial may provide the public with a clearer picture of how little is known about the adverse effects of psychiatric drug cocktails and the deadly consequences of questionable, if not unethical, “treatment” experimentation by the psychiatric industry.

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AbleChild is a 501(3) C nonprofit organization that has recently co-written landmark legislation in Tennessee, setting a national precedent for transparency and accountability in the intersection of mental health, pharmaceutical practices, and public safety.

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