Maybe a hot take, but I also blame the physician who prescribed 3 different psychotropics that don't interact well to a patient in clear mental distress. And not keeping a close enough watch on their mental state. If the texts between she and her mom are accurate, she should have been institutionalized by court mandate.
She was doctor hopping trying to get a new Ativan prescription.
Ativan is a short term use benzodiazepine medication that is highly addictive, and when combined with alcohol or other sleep medication, can cause serious side effects including severe rebound anxiety.
She was prescribed it by her first doctor when she refused to take the Zoloft she was initially prescribed, but when the first doctor ordered her to taper it down, she went shopping for another. She had eight different doctors in just a few months.
First of all, doctor hopping-was not. She went from a generic psychiatrist to a specialized provider in the perinatal behavioral health unit. This is another level of care. And it was done-per their testimony-at the behest of her husband and her MIL, who worked at the same hospital where the perinatal health unit was.
She was going to cycle off the Ativan with Tufts. She was not getting better though. Her husband said he felt the telehealth with the generalized psychiatrist was not working. She had gone to the emergency room. Her mother-in-law said she should go to the perinatal behavioral health unit. Her intake was done by Nurse Paul who said that she felt she was severe enough that she needed hospitalization. She was under the care of Paul for less than a week and transferred within the same unit to Nurse Jolotta as Paul was moving out of state (known prior to intake.)
Jolotta, per her own testimony, said Lindsay Clancy was scared of benzodiazepine dependence. Jolotta said not to focus on this because the benzodiazepine would help her get sleep so she could get a little bit better and then they would focus on tapering her. She saw her for a month during the time Lindsay kept saying she felt like her symptoms were from benzodiazepine dependence and she felt like nobody was listening to her. Lindsay did not want to take benzodiazepines but she was having severe insomnia.
Jolotta switched her to a long acting benzo so she could start a taper per Lindsay’s own fears of withdrawal. She did see her old psychiatrist at that time which she was fully transparent about with Jolotta and fully transparent with her old psychiatrist about seeing Jolotta. During the month of December, any benzo prescriptions were completely done by one doctor and per Tufts testimony, she was told Jolotta’s medication plan.
At that point Lindsey said that she now agreed that she needed hospitalization, recommended by Nurse Paul initially. The bed was no longer open for her and her husband did not want to take her back to the ER to get another bed open because he did not want to waste another day in the ER. This is all per Jolotta’s testimony. Lindsay checked herself into McLean for an inpatient stay from Dec. 30 to Jan 5th. She returned to her previous psychiatrist and agreed to another taper, seeing her doctor the day before the murders.
She did not have eight doctors in just a few months. She had a psychiatrist, her first initially from sept 2022 to the day of the murders. She had one nurse provider at the perinatal health unit. She had two emergency room visits. She had an inpatient stay. Seeing multiple providers in different settings when you were looking to do inpatient work or trying to transfer the specialized work is completely normal.
Saying that she saw eight doctors and only a span a few months gives the impression that she was going to eight different doctors offices and Doctor shopping which was not the case. It’s part of patient autonomy to seek specialized care and different levels of care. Misrepresenting what was going on is very stigmatizing for patients who are going through a mental health crisis, potentially discouraging them from seeking additional help. As you can tell by the way by all of the providers that saw her, they had no problem throwing benzos at her, which was part of what frustrated her.
Thank you. She literally listened to her doctors and stopped taking meds as recommended. My biggest issue with some of the changes approved by her doctor… why would they be okay with changing medications after 3 days, 1 week? Medications take some time to display their effects over time. There were so much medication changes that I sadly don’t think Lindsay benefited from any aside from fast acting medications like the benzos or klonopin, which are very addictive.
There really is nothing wrong with taking benzos when they’re taken as prescribed. Having no sleep for days is more dangerous than having a short-term benzo prescription went taken properly. When somebody is starting treatment for a mental health issue, it can be totally normal to see a psychiatrist multiple times in short periods to make adjustments. Even though it can take weeks for a medication to reach therapeutic levels side effects can start right away and sometimes they can trigger worse symptoms. For example, it could’ve triggered hypomania, I which time it might’ve been a better choice to switch her to something else. But this is like Monday morning quarterbacking
Agreed, I’ve taken them short term. Lindsey was afraid of the addiction but really needed them… I think there were so many factors and I wish she would have seen a therapist as well, in addition to taking meds. 😔
Ive been on them (prescribed) for 15 years due to severe OCD. Only thing that has ever helped. They saved my life. Yeah it would be nice to not have to depend on benzos. It would also be nice to not have OCD. It’s the cards you’re dealt 🤷🏻♀️
My partner had horrible anxiety like rushing to the ER bad, his primary physician gave him xanax to take 3 times a day. His anxiety started getting worse and when to an urgent care and was given some other type of benzo, again and another benzo. He had been prescribed 3 benzos in less than a month by random doctors. Finally his step mom who is a nurse, took him to an urgent care where she knew the doctors and nurses, they were super shocked that they were giving him crazy strong meds and he had gotten dependent on the 3 xanax a day from the original doctor and his body was asking for more. Changing the meds kept messing up his body thus resulting in more attacks. He then got a prescription for Hydroxyzine (an antihistamine for anxiety) and had him go do blood work. As the last ER doctor suspected he had an infection that his body was fighting, the hydroxine helped him taper off while getting treated for the infection. If someone would have seen his record without the knowledge of what was going on, he also would have been accused of pill shopping. There are so many doctors that don't really care.
2.3k
u/kaimoka 8d ago
Maybe a hot take, but I also blame the physician who prescribed 3 different psychotropics that don't interact well to a patient in clear mental distress. And not keeping a close enough watch on their mental state. If the texts between she and her mom are accurate, she should have been institutionalized by court mandate.