Archive for January, 2008

Sources tell PageSix.com that Britney Spears is currently going through a detox process at the UCLA Medical Center. Doctors will stabilize her and evaluate her condition before she can be administered new medication to treat her suspected bipolar condition.

Detoxification is necessary for doctors to rid the patient’s system of other drugs so that they can be properly diagnosed and prescribed a course of treatment.

“It’s often helpful to clear the decks under medical supervision and get back to the drawing board and decide, ‘What have we been dealing with here?’” Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist who has not treated the pop star, tells PageSix.com.

Detox is especially helpful in cases where the patient may have been misdiagnosed and administered medication that might have exacerbated or altered the person’s symptoms.

“You have lots of people who have manic symptoms of bipolar disorder wrongly diagnosed with attention deficit disorder,” says Dr. Ablow, author of Living the Truth. “But if you put those people on stimulant medication, you can make them worse by driving them into the highest highs of their disorder.”
Britney was checked into the hospital late last night and placed on 72-hour psychiatric hold, or what is known as a 5150. So what can the singer expect over the coming days? During detoxification, the patient is slowly tapered off the medicine, with dosages being reduced over time. Doctors also sometimes use other medicines to temporarily blunt the symptoms of any withdrawal that might occur.

Dr. Ablow says it’s also helpful to have patients checked into the hospital for several days so doctors can monitor the effect of the medications over time and figure out whether more medications need to be added and in what dosage.

“Only a minority of patients achieve effective results from one mood stabilizer if they’re suffering from bipolar disorder. Many need two or three,” says Dr. Ablow, who added that mood stabilizers only work in a particular concentration in the blood that varies from person to person.

“And that takes time to figure out,” he says.

Julianna Margulies has given birth, her rep tells Usmagazine.com.

The baby was a boy – Kieran, Us has learned. “He’s brought a lot of joy to the family,” Julianna’s father, Paul Margulies, tells Us.

This is the first child for Margulies, 41, best known for her role on ER, and husband Keith Lieberthal, an attorney. They have been married since November. “He has some of Keith’s features and some of Julianna’s features,” adds Paul, “and they’re changing everyday.”

Julianna’s fathers says that he’s prepared his daughter as best he can for motherhood. “We went down to the hospital to visit them, and I brought the nurse over,” he recalls. “I said [to the nurse], ‘You better explain to her about post-partum blues,’ and the nurse said, ‘We already talked about this. She’s not going to have post-partum blues.’ And I don’t think she will.”

As for future kids, Paul isn’t willing to speculate. “I have no idea. At one point she didn’t think she was going to have any children, and that’s why this one they’re overjoyed with.”

Audrina Patridge is an aunt!

The Hills star’s sister, Casey Patridge, gave birth to Sadie Raine on January 22.

The baby – weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces – is the first for Casey and her fiancee Aaron Hershman.

Audrina tells Usmagazine.com, “She is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen and I’m so happy to be an Auntie!”

(source)

TMZ has learned actor Justin Chambers, Dr. Alex Karev on “Grey’s Anatomy,” checked himself in to the psych ward at UCLA Medical Center this week. Yes, it’s the same place …

Chambers’ rep confirmed to TMZ that star checked in on Monday and checked out yesterday.

The rep claims Chambers, a married father of five, was “exhausted and suffers from a sleeping disorder. He went in voluntarily to get some help.”

Chambers was in the same ward where Britney is being treated.

If American Idol contestant Robbie Carrico goes far in this season’s competition, it won’t be the first time he has been in the limelight. Carrico, 26, briefly dated Britney Spears in 1999 when he was a member of the Orlando-based band Boyz N Girlz United, a group that billed itself as “a boyband with girls.”

When the group opened for Britney Spears during her 1999 “Baby One More Time” tour, sparks flew between Carrico and Spears, a source who worked with Carrico tells PEOPLE. The couple soon began dating, even making a public appearance together at the September 1999 premiere of the Melissa Joan Hart film Drive Me Crazy.

But the couple split amicably after two months. “It wasn’t anything serious,” says the source. “It was just a flirtation thing. But they were a cute couple.”

Boyz and Girlz United had a minor hit in 2000 with “Messed Around,” an up-tempo pop song written by ‘N Sync member JC Chasez. After the group disbanded in 2000, Carrico moved to Melbourne, Fla., to front a rock band called Missing Pickett. Leaving his boy band look behind, Carrico, who auditioned in Miami on Wednesday’s episode of Idol, now has shoulder length hair and a beard. His sound is edgier, too: he chose Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Kind of Man” as his audition song.

“It was quite good,” Simon Cowell said, before the judges unanimously sent him through to Hollywood.

A rep for FOX was not able to comment on American Idol contestants.

(source)

One woman’s story about how her well-to-do mother ended up in a psych ward that looked like a locked-down prison.

On the heels of last night’s news about Britney Spears being committed to the psychiatric ward, one mom shares her personal story with Mom•Logic. “Like everyone, I read the stories about Britney and I admit it felt like juicy gossip. But now I feel a pang of recognition that makes me sad. Last summer, my mother was committed to a psychiatric ward for over a month. My own mother, who is a wealthy woman, she had friends in high places, and she ended up in a ward that was not fancy.”

Follow the link below to read her story.

Web Link:
http://www.momlogic.com/2008/01/my_mom_was_committed_like_brit.php