LINDSAY Clancy can battle back from the devastating effects of her mєntal illness – but two leading experts have told The U.S. Sun the horrifying consequences of 𝘬iᩚlling her three children could haunt her forever.

The  will now look ahead to September 29, when her next legal steps will be discussed following a  in her bombshell murder case last Friday.

Clancy, 36, admitted to strangling her three young children to dєatᩚh in January 2023.

Her defense team, however, argued that she should be found not guilty by reason of insanity, ᴀsserting over  that she was experiencing postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings of Cora, five, Dawson, three, and eight-month-old Callan.

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Dr. Kenneth Spielvogel, a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist who has practiced for more than 30 years and delivered more than 15,000 babies, said the mєntal illness is not necessarily permanent.

“Someone can recover from postpartum psychosis,” Spielvogel, Senior Medical Officer at , told The U.S. Sun.

“Just like anyone who has bipolar disease or bipolar with psycH๏τic features, schizophrenia with psycH๏τic features, with proper treatment and medication, people can live healthy, productive lives.

“That’s not to say that there aren’t going to be challenges along the way in adjustments to treatment, but absolutely, it’s not a terminal illness type diagnosis.”

The doctor said he has often encountered women struggling with similar issues, although Clancy’s  are radically different from those of someone recovering from an isolated episode of psychosis.

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Spielvogel said the consequences of her actions, her physical disability and the deaths of her children could see her stuck in a permanent state of hell.

“I cannot imagine the prison that she’s living in when she’s outside of that psycH๏τic dissociated state,” he said.

“She’s now wheelchair bound. Her three children are ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at her hands. Beyond, like the loss of relationship and everything else and her freedom. So that in and of itself is its own prison.”

Spielvogel predicts her treatment plan could last a “lifetime” and involve a combination of therapy, medications and other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy.

Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is most commonly used for severe mєntal health conditions, particularly major depression that has not responded adequately to other treatments.

During ECT, a controlled electrical current is pᴀssed through the brain while the patient is under general anesthesia, intentionally producing a brief seizure.

Treatments are typically given several times over a few weeks under careful medical supervision.

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Experts say it can be highly effective, especially for severe depression, depression with psycH๏τic symptoms or situations in which rapid improvement is needed, such as when someone is at high risk of sᩚuᩚiᩚcide.

“My experience and seeing patients who are frankly psycH๏τic and major depression with a plan to commit sᩚuᩚiᩚcide, they have dramatic results in the aftermath,” Spielvogel continued, “and, having continued maintenance counseling, obviously medication adjustment, go on to lead very healthy, functional lives.

“But there’s absolutely treatments, whether it’s proper medication, even things like ECT which has become more in vogue lately and the technique has improved and the results are impressive. There are options.”

Nicole Kumi, CEO of a maternal mєntal-health and wellness organization, , who specializes in training in perinatal mєntal health, also stressed that psychosis is not necessarily permanent.

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It’s the pain and anguish of confronting her tragic actions that could become too tough to bear.

“From the clinical lens, we talk about recovery from  mєntal health disorders specifically for her with postpartum psychosis, recovery is absolutely possible for individuals because psychosis is not a state, a permanent state that one is in,” Kumi said.

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“So I think what’s really important for us to understand here is even if she is not actively psycH๏τic, she is not in the state permanently. Recovery is possible.”

Overcoming the tragic deaths of her  children, however, is a separate question.

“Recovering from that alongside  mєntal health conditions kind of puts things in a different perspective,” she said.

“That is where the clinical teams really are going to come in and ᴀssess her comprehensive risk ᴀssessments, evaluation, mєntal state, risk for harm, self harm.”

While the jury of nine women and three men failed to reach a unanimous verdict at Plymouth Superior Court, mєntal health experts have begun to chart out the next steps for the former delivery nurse.

, who had been suffering mentally and was reportedly on 13 separate medications, was found outside her Duxbury, Mᴀssachusetts, home after throwing herself out of a window in a failed sᩚuᩚiᩚcide attempt following the killings.

She has since been remanded to Tewksbury State Hospital, where she returned following the latest court proceedings and is expected to remain for the foreseeable future.

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The heartbreakingly brutal case has been widely dubbed “America’s saddest trial” – but experts say the worldwide attention has also shone a fresh spotlight on the devastating issue of postpartum psychosis.

Clancy told  that, after the killings, she heard a male voice commanding her to 𝘬iᩚll the children and herself.

Defense experts characterized the voice as a “command hallucination,” which they said indicated psychosis.

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Even if the condition that experts say overwhelmed Clancy has resolved, clinicians say she could face years, or potentially a lifetime, of psychiatric treatment – along with the devastating consequences of what happened.

Ahead of a potential second trial later this year, Clancy will already be well aware of the possible outcomes.

A not-guilty verdict would not necessarily mean an immediate release from psychiatric care.

“I don’t see it in a case where she’s going to be released immediately,” Kumi said.

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“I see this maybe taking months again if she’s found not guilty, months of strong evaluation, safety precautions, protections put in place to ensure her safety and well-being outside of the insтιтution she’s in.

“She is at high risk for sᩚuᩚiᩚcide. We’re seeing that now because of her being on a sᩚuᩚiᩚcide watch where she’s currently being housed.”

A guilty charge, meanwhile, would arguably see a far worse level of care in a prison.

“Anyone who pretends that wouldn’t be the case isn’t living in reality,” said Spielvogel.

Rather than ᴀssuming Clancy has recovered simply because she is no longer actively psycH๏τic, clinicians would need to establish what her current baseline looks like and build treatment around it.

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“We know that the psychosis happened in a specific period of time,” Kumi said.

“She’s not actively psycH๏τic. So now they have to evaluate what does her baseline look like.

“And then a treatment plan would be developed from that, probably including individual therapy if daily if not weekly group programming, other guidelines that might be imposed upon her, again depending upon her mєntal health state.”

That treatment could change over time, particularly around emotionally difficult dates.

“There will be times and places for increased intensive supports, and then there may be times where they can pull back a little bit and have her in more of a generalized setting,” said Kumi.

“There’s fluidity within this. She may need more support around the  children’s birthdays, around the anniversaries of of their deaths.”

If she were eventually considered safe enough to leave an insтιтution, Kumi said she could move through different levels of care.

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Treatment teams ordinarily take stock the situation after three months and then make any necessary adjustments.

“If she is found not guilty and she is released, I wouldn’t ᴀssume there would be step down procedures,” she said.

“There’s levels of treatment. So they’re inpatient. There’s intensive outpatient programs. “

For Spielvogel, one of the most troubling possibilities is what could happen if Clancy eventually emerges fully from the psycH๏τic and dissociated state described by experts.

Becoming  mentally well enough to understand what happened, he said, could itself be devastating.

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“Guilty. Not guilty. She’s going to be imprisoned forever,” Spielvogel said.

“It’s almost like when you think about it is the cruelest of cruel because her moving to a non-psycH๏τic, non-dissociated state is going to allow her to have insight into what she’s actually done. And I cannot imagine what a mother, how a mother could live with that.”

Kumi similarly believes Clancy’s recovery would involve constructing a new life rather than simply returning to who she was before the psychosis.

“She will never return to the person she was,” Kumi said. “There is no version of her that can exist in this post-trial outcome.”

“Her recovery is going to be based solely on reestablishing who she is as a person now, with all of this behind her at some point.”

Kumi cautioned against imagining recovery as a dramatic transformation. It could instead involve small, incremental improvements.

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“It’s easy to say recovery would be that she’s, you know, moving around better and she’s smiling and she seems healthy. Maybe recovery is that she hasn’t thought about sᩚuᩚiᩚcide today, and maybe she’s sleeping better through the night and a medication regimen is working for her.”

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“I think it’s going to be much smaller than we as a society think.”

Both experts said Clancy’s case also raises questions about whether more could have been done before the tᩚraɢedy, and the level of attention she received.

Spielvogel said postpartum psychosis can be difficult to identify during routine medical appointments.

“You can’t tell me in a 10 or 15 minute visit, face to face with someone, that you’re going to be able to screen them properly for the potential of postpartum psychosis, which is a very different affectation from postpartum depression,” he said.

Kumi argued that mothers should not be expected to carry the responsibility for identifying and treating their own  mєntal-health crises.

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“We can’t keep putting the responsibility on moms to get this help, to speak up when we have given birth and we’re taking care of our babies,” she said.

“We’re desperate. We’re asking, we’re researching, we’re going to a bunch of different systems, and I think it’s time that the health care system wraps themselves around mothers and families during this period of time.”

She believes Clancy’s case exposed missed opportunities but hopes the attention the case has generated can ultimately lead to systemic change.

“We can’t keep prepping for the birth of the baby and not prepping for the birth of the mom,” Kumi said.

“That’s happening simultaneously. I think we have a lot of the right people in the right places to make a systemic change that will be felt for generations.”

“This is such a difficult case,” concluded Spielvogel. “It’s very difficult for the lay public and for most people to understand what it means to be completely dissociated from one sense of self.

“What it’s like to have command, hallucinations, literal voices in your head that are pushing you towards the horror of strangling your own children and then committing sᩚuᩚiᩚcide.

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“It’s a tᩚraɢedy all the way around. Guilty or not guilty, she’s going to be imprisoned forever.”