Psychiatrists testify in Lindsay Clancy trial over postpartum psychosis claim

Psychiatrists who treated Lindsay Clancy before she killed her three children took the stand in Plymouth Superior Court as her defense pressed the claim that postpartum psychosis left her not criminally responsible.

Dr. Jhilam Biswas, an adult and forensic psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, described a brief evaluation of Clancy while she was intubated and preparing for major spinal surgery. Biswas told jurors that Clancy wrote she was “horrified” and asked whether she had a lawyer, whether her body was broken and whether her legs were straight. He said those written questions were relevant and logical, and that he did not observe signs of psychosis during that encounter.

Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, is accused of strangling her three children, Cora, Dawson and 8-month-old Callan, at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, on January 24, 2023, before attempting to die by suicide. The defense says her mental health collapsed after the birth of her third child and that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychiatric illness. Prosecutors have argued she knew what she was doing.

The testimony has not been limited to psychiatry. Patrick Clancy testified that her mental health worsened in late 2022 after the birth of their children, and doctors and nurses who treated her after the killings have also appeared before the jury. The prosecution has introduced toxicology evidence showing multiple psychiatric medications in Clancy’s system, along with testimony that psychosis can coexist with planning.

Postpartum psychosis is rare but severe, and can involve delusions, hallucinations, insomnia and disordered thinking.

A separate civil lawsuit filed in January 2026 alleged that multiple medical providers failed to diagnose, treat and monitor Clancy’s severe postpartum psychiatric condition despite repeated pleas for help.