Amanda Bynes’ forced stay in a psychiatric ward has already gone well past its initial 72 hours and it will now be extended another month. Doctors say that they need an extra 30 days to properly diagnose the troubled star.
Bynes was admitted to the psych ward on July 23 after she set a small fire at someone’s driveway in Thousand Oaks, California. Police held her under a 510 hold and the initial 72 hours was extended by over a week. Last week, her lawyer tried to get her released, but doctors successfully convinced a judge that they needed her to stay there another two weeks.
Now, the doctors have been granted another 30 days, according to sources for the New York Daily News and TMZ.
TMZ’s sources say that Bynes was not feeling well enough to leave the hospital Thursday, when she was supposed to go to a hearing, during which her parents were going to ask for temporary conservatorship. But the hearing was instead held at the hospital, where the judge again agreed that Bynes needed more care.
The law states that a patient must be “gravely disabled as a result of a mental disorder” if a judge is to grant such an order, notes TMZ.
A Daily News source says that it appears that Bynes has schizophrenia and the reason doctors need her to stay in the hospital is so they can monitor the effect of a drug cocktail.
Bynes’ parents are still going to try for temporary conservatorship to oversee her finances.