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.
Lindsay Lohan Released From Jail, Goes To Rehab
Pictures: Lindsay Lohan Surrenders
Pictures: Jail Time for Lindsay Lohan
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.