Schlosser and Yates: Two women who are casualties of postpartum psychosis

[Horse with no Name]

Following these two cases, it makes it difficult to understand why these women didn't receive the help they needed.
What drove them to this?
First you have to look at their lives and compare them.
Ms. Yates was well off.
Ms. Schlosser was not.
So it was not a financial crisis that drove these women.
Both women were isolated by their husbands and both husbands were fanatic Fundamental Christians and each husband knew their wife was fragile, yet did nothing.
I believe in both cases that these husbands are as much at fault as the women who killed their children and should bear at least half of the responsibility.
Here is a recent thread on Andrea Yates
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2167349A


There was a SEVERE breakdown of a safety net for Mrs. Schlosser:

>>>>snip
Mr. Schlosser isolated his wife, her family members said. He ruled his home in the manner prescribed by their minister, Doyle Davidson, a self-appointed prophet and apostle at Water of Life Church in Plano. Ms. Schlosser did not have many friends, and her mother, Connie Macaulay, lives in Canada and has advanced Parkinson's disease.

Mr. Schlosser kept family members in the dark once his wife's episodes began, according to testimony. He told no one that his wife had cut her wrist the day after Maggie was born. Once authorities were involved, he played down the severity of her illness and convinced doctors that she was better off at home.

He never told anyone that the family's minister preached that mental illness was caused by demons and that medicine wasn't needed if you had faith.

Forensic psychiatrist William H. Reid testified that Mr. Schlosser and the church prevented Ms. Schlosser from getting proper health care "when she needed it and when she wanted it."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/031906dnccoschlossermental.2ad08a0.html

[LostinVA]

1. It was mainly lack of family support,a s well as religious beliefs

That basally disrespect both women and the REALITY of mental health.

A tragedy.

And, in both cases, the husbands were not penalized at all legally, although they should have been. Negligence? Child endangerment?

Especially that sleaze Rusty Yates. He's at least educated... and now remarried.

[tanyev]

2. I'm sure "Rev" Davidson doesn't believe in social safety nets.

DAVIDSON, DOYLE E
MC KINNEY,TX 75070
WATER OF LIFE CHURCH
11/14/2003
$1,000
National Republican Senatorial Cmte

DAVIDSON, DOYLE E MR
MC KINNEY,TX 75070
WATER OF LIFE CHURCH/MINISTER OF TH
2/17/2004
$500
Republican National Cmte

DAVIDSON, DOYLE MR
MCKINNEY,TX 75070
WARER OF LIFE CHURCH/SELF - EMPLOYE
11/17/2003
$250
National Republican Congressional Cmte

DAVIDSON, DOYLEE MR
MC KINNEY,TX 75070
WATER OF LIFE CHURCH/MINISTER OF TH
3/6/2003
$500
Republican National Cmte

http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=davidson&txtState=TX&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2006=Y&txt2004=Y&Order=N

[Horse with no Name]

5. Why doesn't that surprise me?

:crazy:

[JDPriestly]

3. Actually, I think post-partum depression must be common.

I had two children, and at each birth I roomed with a mother who had it. Coincidence I guess because I was just delighted to be a mom finally at last. My complications were all physical. I guess I was lucky about that. Post-partum depression can happen to anyone.

[Horse with no Name]

4. Huge difference between postpartum depression and pp psychosis

Postpartum depression can be caused by hormonal changes that can affect brain chemicals after giving birth. About 10 percent of new mothers experience some degree of postpartum depression. Treatment can include medication and psychotherapy.

Symptoms include:

Sluggishness, fatigue, exhaustion

Feelings of hopelessness or depression

Disturbances with appetite or sleep

Confusion

Uncontrollable crying

Lack of interest in the baby

Fear of harming the baby or oneself

Mood swings

Postpartum psychosis is more severe and less common, occurring in one to two of every 1,000 new mothers. Of those, an estimated 5 percent commit suicide, and 4 percent kill their babies. Risk factors include a family history of psychosis, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Postpartum depression can evolve into psychosis after a dramatic or traumatic event.

Symptoms, which usually arise within three days of delivery, can include:

Hallucinations

Delusions, for example, about a need to kill the baby, that the baby is possessed or a denial of the birth

Delirium, mania and frantic energy

Extreme confusion, memory loss or incoherence

Paranoia, irrational statements, preoccupation with trivial things

Refusal to eat

A woman who is found to have postpartum psychosis should be hospitalized until she is in stable condition, according to the National Mental Health Association. Doctors may prescribe a mood stabilizer, antipsychotic drug or antidepressant to treat the psychosis.

SOURCES: American Psychiatric Association; National Mental Health Association; Postpartum Support International

[JDPriestly]

11. Thanks. Didn't know about the psychosis.

[Cats Against Frist]

12. I think I had some kind of weird postpartum psychosis

I had a lot of the symptoms on the list, but, in my case, it became an insane need to make sure that my son was healthy and well taken care of. I didn't sleep for something like eight days straight, after the birth, had delirium, confusion, panic attacks, wouldn't eat etc. I kept watch over that little baby like he was the second coming. It was weird, though -- and I don't think it was normal. I can see someone having the opposite experience, and being out of control.

[moc]

6. Our society failed Dena Schlosser

"Obviously, this is one of the saddest cases we've ever seen in our community," Dr. Routon said. "I think the public is not always aware that Texas is almost last in funding for mental health services in the nation. That affects our court system, how many people are in jails, how many people are having disturbances in the street and how many lives are unproductive. It shows up in a lot of ways."

We live in Collin County (where Plano is, for you non-Texans), and my husband is a clinical social worker in private practice. Virtually all of his patients are on medicaid or value options (medicaid managed care for behavioral health). I know first hand where Texas ranks with regards to funding for mental health. Because most of my husband's patients are youth, he has frequent contact with CPS and knows well how that system is broken too.

It's not only publically funded mental health services that are in crisis. In an effort to control costs, private insurers are gutting behavioral health services to the bone. Until we start supporting treatment for mental health to maximize access and minimize stigma, these tragedies will continue to occur.

:cry:

[senseandsensibility]

7. The first link doesn't work

I's like to read it.:-) I read the second article, and I'd never heard of that case before. Horrifying.

[Horse with no Name]

9. Here is the permalink

See if this helps
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2167349&mesg_id=2167349

[senseandsensibility]

10. Yes it did

Thanks!

[Maraya1969]

8. What people do not talk about is the horrible pain that psychosis

can be. Ms. Schlosser had a psychosis in the middle of the night and went running down the road believing someone was after her with a chain saw. Can you imagine actually being in the movie?

Try to imagine what is must be like to have these beliefs. Terror is too small of word for explanation.

The only way these two woman got treatment was to kill. And then many people will look on them with scorn and call them murderers. They are afflicted with an illness that hurts at every turn and from all angles. Our society is the real sickness when it comes to these things. In England they have doctors and groups set up before hand when a woman is in danger of post partem depression/psychosis and they do not charge a woman of murder for infanticide because they know how direly sick she is.

Shouldn't we have a system where it doesn't have to get that bad first and why does it seem like our society is going backward sometimes?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. Maybe UK DUers can confirm this, but when the Andrea Yates case

was in the news, a friend who's a nurse in an obstetrics unit said that in the UK, the NHS sends a nurse around to visit new mothers periodically to make sure that they're coping and that the baby is thriving. If there are signs of postpartum pscychosis, the mother and baby are hospitalized together so that the mother can get treatment and learn to bond with the baby in a healthy way.

Now this may or may not be true, or it may be true only locally, but it sounds like a logical way to prevent such tragedies.

[Horse with no Name]

15. This is true

I've heard about it before.
I think it is a great program--but it costs money that our healthcare system doesn't allow.:(

[savemefromdumbya]

16. yes midwives/nurses visit you at home and health visitor

for the first week you get a midwife/nurse every day. After that the mother has to keep up appointments with the health visitor. PPS should be picked up by these consultations. The NHS is good to women, in fact fantastic!

[savemefromdumbya]

14. women were mentally ill

probably brought on from loony religious influence.