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Of the long list of psychiatric medications Lindsay Clancy was prescribed in the months before she killed her three children in their Massachusetts home in 2023, one drug has come up repeatedly during trial: Seroquel.
In testimony this week, it was revealed that Clancy’s nurse practitioner, Rebecca Jollotta, initially prescribed the non-controlled antipsychotic as an off-label treatment for insomnia — before increasing the dose for mood stabilization.
The disturbing, headline-grabbing case is shining a spotlight on the surprisingly common practice of using the drug, which is FDA-approved for psychiatric disorders but has strong sedating effects, to help patients sleep — sparking a conversation about safety. Maker AstraZeneca previously tangled with the government over marketing of the drug — resulting in a $520 million fine.
Whether the medication Clancy was taking played any role in her actions is currently being examined. Her defense seeks to blame a litany of prescribed drugs for the worsening of her mental state and an eventual psychotic break. Clancy’s journals describe worsening anxiety, panic attacks, numbness, and new intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideation — after starting Seroquel.
Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and ICU nurse Melissa Pauline told The Post that Seroquel, which she described as a “go-to” for many providers, is used “quite frequently” in the ICU — particularly for patients who may be agitated or delirious and can be continuously monitored.
But using it for ordinary insomnia in an outpatient setting is completely different, she said — for one, sleepwalking is a common side effect, one difficult enough to monitor in a busy hospital, even more so when a patient is at home alone.
“Seroquel … is one of those last meds that we use when it comes to sleeping,” the Atlanta-area insider said, adding that it typically comes after exhausting all options.
“A significant difference exists in the fact that sedation does not equate to restorative sleep,” Dr. Lauren Grawert, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist in Boston, told The Post.
Using Seroquel solely for insomnia presents “a very different risk and benefit calculation,” she said.
Dr. Gil Lichtshein, a Pennsylvania psychiatrist, told The Post he rarely prescribes Seroquel, describing it as a “potent drug” with potentially serious adverse effects that he generally reserves for patients with a psychiatric indication for the medication.
One 38-year-old Baltimore woman diagnosed with bipolar disorder who took lower, 50-100 mg doses of Seroquel for a year and a half, told The Post troubling side effects were apparent within days.
Back in her mid-20s and battling insomnia, she was prescribed the drug — which put her in a “trance-like state.”
“I would sleepwalk badly sometimes, leaving my apartment,” she told The Post. “My husband once came home and couldn’t find me, the apartment door wide open. I lived in the middle of [the] city.”
On several occasions, she woke up covered in food wrappers and crumbs, completely unaware she had been eating all night. If she woke up early, before the full effects of the medication wore off, she struggled to grasp her surroundings.
“When I tried to stop taking the medication, I was met with [even more] severe insomnia. My days were a blur,” she recalled. “As someone with bipolar disorder, not sleeping to this degree is very unsafe.”
While Seroquel is widely considered non-habit-forming, other sources echoed experiences of intense withdrawal and insomnia after stopping.
A 66-year-old woman in Illinois, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she was prescribed Seroquel in June 2025 while transitioning off the antidepressant Cymbalta.
“It was prescribed to me for nightmares I was having, and I do suffer from anxiety [and] PTSD, but was just looking for something for sleep,” she told The Post.
She initially did rest better after first being prescribed a 100 mg dose, but said she remained exhausted even after nine hours of sleep — and continued to experience nightmares and anxiety as her dose increased toward 200 mg.
But her main concern, she said, was not understanding the effects of what she called a “dangerous drug.”
“I just took it and didn’t ask questions. I should have never been on it,” she said. “They just keep throwing drugs at you, and as long as I was sleeping, they think it works,” she added. “There should be informed consent — especially when you are being prescribed it for sleep.”
Weight gain, elevated blood sugar, and other metabolic changes are well-documented risks of Seroquel. The FDA label also reports nervous-system adverse reactions including psychosis, hallucinations, paranoid reaction, delusions, manic reaction and apathy — some of which echo symptoms now being discussed at Clancy’s trial.
AstraZeneca’s whopping fine was handed down in 2010, to resolve allegations that it illegally marketed Seroquel for uses not approved by the FDA, including insomnia. The drug behemoth denied the allegations — and doctors remain legally permitted to prescribe approved medications off-label.
Over time, Seroquel has become deeply polarizing online, spawning Reddit forums and Facebook support groups devoted to side effects, withdrawal, and what some users call “Seroquel injury.” Posts carry alarming titles like “No one believes me Seroquel is destroying me…” while some users claim the drug “ruined” their lives.
Others describe the opposite experience, crediting Seroquel with finally allowing them to sleep and function when other medications failed.
Another woman who spoke to The Post anonymously embodies that contradiction.
She was initially prescribed Seroquel for insomnia at 17, eventually reaching doses of 300 to 400 mg.
At one point, she said, she was instructed to take it twice daily — and the second dose made her feel “like someone other than myself.”
Yet she remained on Seroquel after realizing it helped stabilize her mood and allowed her to stop taking other medications, including Lexapro and Lunesta.
“Having experienced nearly all of its heavy side effects firsthand, I fully understand the concerns surrounding prescribing a medication this powerful for off-label or unapproved uses,” she said.
For another woman who spoke anonymously to The Post, hearing Seroquel discussed during the Clancy trial struck a particularly personal chord.
She was first prescribed the drug at 19 after voluntarily admitting herself to a psychiatric hospital during a mental-health crisis. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she remained on Seroquel for years while cycling through multiple psychiatric medications and providers before eventually being reevaluated and told she did not have bipolar disorder.
“When I heard Lindsay was trialing and erroring multiple medications, I felt that in my soul,” she recounted.
Still, she doesn’t condemn Seroquel itself.
“Seroquel does work for people,” she said. “My observation is that psychiatry’s patient load nationwide is so high that they do not get enough time with patients, and I feel like they’re prescribing what sticks to the wall in a crisis.”
By January 2023, after weeks of reporting worsening anxiety, numbness, and suicidal thoughts, Lindsay Clancy voluntarily admitted herself to McLean psychiatric hospital, where Seroquel was discontinued.
Days later, her children were dead.
English (US)