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CBS/ August 20, 2010, 10:08 AM

Lindsay Lohan Shocker: Not an Addict, After All?

Lindsay's Lohan's attorney is expected to return to court next week, arguing the fallen star has been in rehab long enough, reports CBS News Correspondent Bill Whitaker.

This, as a report surfaces that she may not have been an addict at all, and may have been misdiagnosed as one.

"It seems she's doing very well (in rehab), and if the doctors recommend her being released, she will in fact be released at that time," says Dina Sansing of Us Weekly magazine.

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Pictures: Lindsay Lohan

Lohan isn't even three weeks into the court-decreed rehab stay and, if she's allowed to go next week, it would be more than two months short of the 90 days the court ordered.

Lohan also walked away from last month's 90-day jail sentence early, after just 14 days. She checked directly into a rehab facility at UCLA for intense therapy and treatment for multiple addictions.

Now, there's word of a possible change in her diagnosis.

Celebrity website TMZ.com says a dependence on the prescription drug Adderall, which TMZ calls "the result of a medical misdiagnosis," may be behind Lohan behavior that led to the conclusion she was an addict.

TMZ says Doctors at the rehab facility "believe Lindsay was misdiagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and then prescribed Adderall to treat the phantom affliction.

"Dr. Joe Haraszti, a prominent L.A. addiction specialist, tells TMZ people who take Adderall when they don't need it can experience similar effects as people who use cocaine or methamphetamine. "

"One of the most shocking things," says Sansing, "is (doctors in the rehab center) saying she's not experiencing any withdrawal symptoms, that she's not addicted to anything. (She's thought of) as someone's who's had a serious addiction, but hearing the doctors say this isn't necessarily the case makes you wonder what's really going on."

"Psychiatric diagnoses often change over time," observes David Sack, CEO of Promises Treatment Centers. "We don't have a biological tests where we can put somebody up against an X-ray machine and say, 'This is your psychiatric diagnosis.' So most psychiatric diagnoses are based on clinical history, and as more history becomes available, it's important for clinicians to reassess the diagnosis."

While her future as a bankable star is now in doubt, says Whitaker, her tabloid behavior may be rewarded.

"Right now," says Sansing, "there are reports that the first thing she's being offered is a million dollars to tell her story about her jail time. It remains to be seen how introspective she can be about the situation. She hasn't been someone who's been very honest in the past."

After she's released, Lohan faces twelve months of random drug tests.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved.
45 Comments Add a Comment
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JayAdler1 says:
I apologize for being verbose but I must add something about FDA approved medications and their adverse side effects. I will advise you that it is not uncommon for anti-depressants to cause suicidal ideation and actual suicide attempts. It sounds like the antithesis of what is medically desired but unfortunately it is a risk. Prozac had trouble with this but actually the benefits here outweighed the risks. Lindsay had representatives claim that her medication caused reprehensible behavior. Now they will have to ask for the FDA and pharmaceutical company sheets and history of that drug to back this up.The type of behavior that Lindsay exhibited is unlikely to be caused by an FDA approved drug or else we would be dealing with perhaps 2 million similar cases around the world.
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JayAdler1 says:
Getting back to my comments, just use logic. Lindsay has exhibited unquestionably aberrant behavior and has been a danger to herself for quite some time. She retains criminal events and court dates in her records. She was remanded to probation.All of this is evidence of a mental situation caused by drugs or a yet to be diagnosed mental illness. We are told now by officials that she is not an addict and her behavior was manifested by side effects of a medication. There is circumstantial evidence of a fortune to be made in tabloid journalism if she were to be sprung now. Lawyers are quizzically involved in discharging a rehab patient, not usual.If Lindsay is not a drug addict, we must ascribe her past unacceptable and odd behavior to mental illness. It's the process of elimination.
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cjknutson replies:
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Put away your thesaurus. She's an addict. Period.
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JayAdler1 says:
I know this sounds silly but even when I worked before retirement people thought it odd that I would study the science of medicine on my own. I will never be anything in the medical industry, it is just one of the subjects I enjoy reading about. The article is correct in stating that there is no physical test for mental illness. The diagnosis is made by use of a standardized test and observation and the psychiatrist can pretty much make the diagnosis. Remember that schizophrenia, Bi Polar, Depression, OCD, are diverse illnesses and feature different abilities to function. Today a person suffering from Bi Polar unlike years ago can be rehabilitated in total with chemical management and lead a completely normal life. Now here is the problem with Lindsay Lohan and the fact that she now may not be a drug addict. Mental Illness is incurable in a defacto sense. With the the advent of the modern pharmaceuticals in play, the individual most time becomes well because the disease is arrested or submerged. Make no mistake about it, this illness is genetic, you cannot lose it without treatment. So if Lindsay is not a drug addict then she may have the gene for mental illness.Now the doctors have something to wrestle with, we know something is up based on her past behavior.
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JayAdler1 says:
If you believe that Lindsay Lohan is fine and should break out of rehab early then I would like you to look at at some land I have down in Florida at 22 cents/acre. Why are lawyers involved in taking this troubled woman out of a facility that is trying to cure her.If they say she is not an addict then she should be committed to a different institutionalized setting. Lindsay in a legal sense has been a danger to herself, not others. She should stay at rehab or if not another facility and the discharge papers should be signed off by her doctors and not under pressure from others who want a piece of that tabloid money before it goes stale.
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gruven13777 says:
An addiction is basically something that you can't stop that is not vital to your physical survival.
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kr8033 says:
Come on.............this is LA.........when do we EVER see a celebrity get full term on a sentence.

Now take a gut that does a drive buy or knocks off a 711 or someone that date rapes his girlfriend and you let them out early.....I guess it's OK to let a looser like Lohan skate too.

LA courts are a joke and the people of this city won't do a thing about it.........surprise, surprise,,,,,same people that voted in this GREAT President we have today.........
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JustSayIt says:
Over under bet!

I bet that Lindsay releases a sex tape un under 3 months. Any one else?

Besides that, who cares about Lindsay? It's over! Get with Palin and get that sex tape done already! Do it before you hit the wall!
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antoniof123 says:
I DON'T CARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Resin-Smoker says:
She may not be an addict but she's still a dumb-arse.
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trs02hd says:
Judge NOT Lest ye be JUDGED ! Harshley I Hope.
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