The murder trial of Lindsay Clancy, the former labor and delivery nurse accused of killing her three young children, is now in its second week. Like many of you, I've been following the proceedings loosely, and the testimony that has emerged has been nothing short of excruciating.
But one aspect of the coverage has especially alarmed me: the rampant speculation about Clancy's medication list. Everyone from prominent MAHA figures to the Boston Globe has been sharing the list of prescriptions—with zero medical context. As I write in a piece today, I worry that this behavior could dissuade newly postpartum parents, who might be suffering from typical postpartum conditions, from seeking help. And let's not forget that untreated mental health conditions are the leading cause of preventable pregnancy-related deaths in the United States.
I'm not alone in my concern. I spoke with several psychiatrists and reproductive experts who shared the same thoughts about pushing personal medication lists out into the public like this:
“My worry is that if [the Clancy case] makes folks more reticent to take medications to treat their mental illness, there’s potential harm there too,” said Dr. Sunny Patel, a psychiatrist at Georgetown’s Thrive Center for Children.
"It is difficult to understand the use of psychiatric medications out of context," said Reid Mergler, a clinical psychiatrist and medical director of the Penn Center for Women’s Behavioral Wellness. "Although we are unable to comment in this specific case, in general, in the case of medication adjustments, it is common for patients to start medications and quickly want to try other options. This is especially true if a patient is suffering."
The Clancy trial is set to continue for a few more weeks. I hope we can all be more careful, a whole lot more gentle about the way we approach discussing this family tragedy.
—Inae Oh
