Psychiatric nurse practitioner Rebecca Jollotta testified about her treatment of Lindsay Clancy at a Massachusetts perinatal behavioural health clinic, providing details about Clancy’s mental health symptoms, medication and weight loss in the months before the deaths of her three children.
Jollotta was called to testify on Tuesday about her treatment of Clancy at the South Shore perinatal behavioural clinic in 2022. She said she had treated five women diagnosed with postpartum psychosis, along with hundreds of patients experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety.
Clancy’s defence is arguing that she was not criminally responsible for the deaths because she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three children.
What did Rebecca Jollotta say about Lindsay Clancy?
Jollotta said she began treating Clancy in 2022 after Julie Paul, who had previously been involved in her care, left the practice.
During their initial consultation, Jollotta reviewed Clancy’s medical and psychiatric history, including information she had previously provided about her medications and a visit to South Shore Hospital’s emergency department in November.
Jollotta also testified that Clancy experienced a six-pound weight loss between October 20 and November 16.
According to the psychiatric nurse practitioner, Clancy reported having a reduced appetite during that period. Clancy weighed 130 pounds during a primary-care appointment on October 20 and 124 pounds at her November 16 appointment.
Jollotta said she considered the antidepressant Remeron an appropriate treatment option for someone experiencing depression alongside anxiety and reduced appetite.
She also recommended therapy, mindfulness exercises and physical activity, saying some of those approaches had previously helped Clancy.
Lindsay Clancy trial enters third week
Jollotta’s testimony comes as Clancy’s trial enters its third week of testimony in Plymouth Superior Court.
The defence has challenged the treatment Clancy received from mental health professionals before the January 2023 deaths of her children. Her lawyers have questioned doctors’ experience, the use of virtual appointments and the medications prescribed to Clancy.
Clancy, 35, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of her children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months.
Prosecutors allege that Clancy strangled the children with exercise bands at the family’s home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, while her husband was away.
The defence does not dispute that Clancy caused the children’s deaths but argues that severe postpartum mental illness, including psychosis, left her unable to understand the nature or wrongfulness of her actions.
Clancy and her former husband, Patrick Clancy, have also filed separate lawsuits against doctors and hospitals involved in her treatment, alleging that she was overmedicated and that her underlying mental health conditions were not properly diagnosed.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Clancy faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.