Lindsay Clancy's Psychiatrist Testifies: Zoloft, Warning Signs, and a Screening That Missed It

A screening form is only as good as what the patient is willing to write down — and today's testimony in the Lindsay Clancy trial made that painfully clear. Dr. Jennifer Tufts, the Duxbury, Massachusetts mother's psychiatrist, described a patient who checked every box for "not a threat" right up until she wasn't. Clancy is charged with strangling her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 7 months — with exercise bands inside the family's Summer Street home on January 24, 2023. She's pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder and three counts of strangulation, with attorney Kevin Reddington arguing insanity via postpartum psychosis and overmedication.

Tufts testified Clancy denied being suicidal, homicidal, or manic on her intake and risk forms, and showed no signs of psychosis or auditory hallucinations. But Clancy also told Tufts she was concerned about her own alcohol use — up to five days a week — alongside a long list of other mental health issues, and impulsive behavior was never assessed. Tufts started her on Zoloft, a breastfeeding-safe first option, and recommended therapy, though Clancy was reluctant to medicate. Raising the dose from 25 to 50 milligrams brought side effects, including intrusive thoughts that she might die — not active suicidal thoughts, Tufts clarified, but ideation nonetheless. Tufts said Clancy didn't fit Major Depressive Disorder, even as her depression visibly worsened in the days before January 23. Still, nothing in front of Tufts read as an active threat.

Prosecutors maintain Clancy knew what she was doing. She allegedly tried to take her own life afterward by jumping from a second-story window, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. Her husband Patrick was running errands at the time and has since moved to Manhattan. The trial continues in Plymouth Superior Court.

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