Latest Spears' Incident Raises Mental Health Questions

Jan. 4, 2007— -- If 2007 was a fall from grace for pop singer Britney Spears, 2008 is shaping up as a complete meltdown.

Spears is now installed in a Los Angeles hospital, reportedly under a 72-hour hold, and a court commissioner decided in an an emergency hearing with her lawyers to suspend her visitation rights for her two young children.

It's the latest turn of events in a long and well-documented slide from pop princess to train wreck.

It was early last year when Spears first began a custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the fate of her two young sons and entered the drug and alcohol rehabilitation center Crossroads in Antigua. In February 2007, shortly after Spears appeared with a freshly shaved head, observers couldn't help remark that the 26-year-old star's life and career seemed to be "spiraling downward."

That spiral, marked by custody battles and allegations of substance abuse, continued relentlessly through 2007 and into the new year, culminating in a tense five-hour standoff over her children Thursday night. After she was taken from the scene by ambulance, speculation mounted about continuing substance abuse.

"When the ambulances began pulling away from the house, no one expected to get a shot of Britney," said Rick Joyce, an executive producer at CelebTV.com, who arrived at Spears' home just 40 minutes after police were called to the residence.

"We got a shot of her in the back of the ambulance. One moment she appeared totally dazed, the next she looked teary-eyed, the next she was smiling," he said.

Police were called to the house around 8 p.m. after Spears allegedly refused to turn over the boys to Federline's bodyguard, who was sent to pick them up.

A dozen police cars and three ambulances were called to the house in the glitzy gated community of the Summit. Paparazzi and the media had staked out the home for four hours.

Spears was taken outside on a stretcher and appeared under the influence of an "unknown substance," Jason Lee of the Los Angeles Police Department told City News Service.