Click here for video of Britney being taken to hospitalKEY POINTS:
Britney Spears left a hospital on Saturday where she was admitted following a confrontation at her home, which ended in a fit of hysterics by the troubled pop star, several media outlets reported.
A number of celebrity websites said Spears was visited Saturday by Dr Phil McGraw, who counsels people on his popular television programme, The Dr Phil Show.
A spokeswoman for the hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, declined comment citing patient confidentiality, and a representative for McGraw could not be reached.
However Dr Phil said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight that Spears was in "dire" need of help.
"My meeting with Britney and some family members this morning in her room at Cedars leaves me convinced more than ever that she is in dire need of both medical and psychological intervention," Dr Phil said, according to an AFP report.
"She was released moments before my arrival and was packing when I entered the room."
"We visited for about an hour before I walked with her to the car.
"I am very concerned for her."
Spears, 26, was hospitalised on Friday when trouble erupted between her and representatives of her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, who went to Spears' home to pick up their two young sons from a weekend visitation.
The pop singer, who spent much of 2007 in and out of alcohol and drug rehab and battling legal problems, became hysterical, was taken from her home on a stretcher and transported to Cedars-Sinai via ambulance, television and websites reported.
Federline's attorneys went to a Los Angeles family court on Friday and obtained a ruling that suspended Spears' visitation rights to her two sons, Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, until January 14.
On Saturday, celebrity website TMZ.com reported that Spears was demanding to leave the hospital, and that she might appear on The Dr Phil Show on Monday.
The New York Post's PageSix.com cited a "family insider" as saying Spears had "a complete nervous breakdown".
None of the reports could be confirmed.
Spears lost primary custody of her sons to Federline after her life spun out of control following their divorce in November 2006.
Since then, she has spent time in rehab, been charged with hit-and-run driving and exhibited unusual behaviour.
Spears is currently undergoing court-ordered random drug and alcohol tests and parenting lessons.
She became a teen pop phenomenon in the 1990s. In October, she made her musical comeback with the single, Gimme More, and an album, Blackout, that briefly hit No. 2 on the US pop album charts.
- REUTERS, NZ HERALD STAFF
