SATURDAY UPDATE: Britney Spears was released from the hospital this morning via an underground tunnel and was seen being walked to her car by TV Talk Show shrink Dr. Phil (McGraw), ET.com reports. According to the hospital, there was no reason to hold Britney any longer.

There was a sense of inevitability to the disturbing images of Britney Spears, tied down to a gurney, being placed into an ambulance by police late Thursday night and taken to a hospital where she is reportedly in 72-hour psychiatric lockdown.

But that doesn't make the scenes of her breakdown any less disturbing and leaves us to ponder some troubling questions: Is she mentally ill? Is she drug addicted? Will Britney finally get the help she so clearly needs or continue this rapid descent?

The troubled pop star had a dramatic three-hour standoff with police when she refused to turn over one of her sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline's bodyguards when her court-monitored visitation was over. Federline's attorneys went to court on Friday and successfully got Britney's visitation suspended until a Jan. 14 hearing when there will be a hearing to determine where the case goes.

Federline's lawyer, Mark Vincent Kaplan, said after a hearing with the judge: "There are no winners here."

Britney has been on a downhill slide - in full public view - for more than a year now. But emerging from cars without underwear on, shaving her head, and wandering aimlessly around L.A. with paparazzi in tow obviously all pales in comparision to the sad ambulance scenes that have been played and replayed time and time again on all the cable channels since Thursday night.

This 26-year-old mother of two, reportedly under the influence of some unknown substance, being taken away after she locked herself into a room at her L.A. home with her son, Jayden, when it came timeto return him to Federline.

The court-appointed monitor assigned to be with Britney anytime she is with sons Preston, 2, and Jayden, 1, was the person who called police. Preston had already been placed in the car of the bodyguards
when Britney locked herself in with Jayden. The cops had intially tried to resolve the situation peacefully but eventually had to resort to force.

Britney's father, Jamie, has been at the hospital while mother Lynne was reportedly on her way to L.A. from Louisiana on Friday. It was just last month that Britney's younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears, 16, announced that she is pregnant. [ET.com reported Friday that despite rumors that her show "Zoey 101" was being canceled due to the pregnancy, the fourth -- and final -- season of the series will air as planned. There had been buzz was that the Nickelodeon network was concerned that by airing the show they would be sending out an inappropriate message to teen and 'tween girls.]

Lynne Spears, who participated in a big cover story with OK! Magazine that detailed Jamie Lynn's pregnancy, had less to say about this situation telling Access Hollywood via telephone that she is "extremely distraught" and said, "Just say prayers."

Britney's former dance teacher, Renee Donewar, told People.com: "I don't even know where Britney's head is. I thought she had already hit rock bottom. I can't imagine what's next."