Tyson not manic-depressive says psychiatrist

Press, 6 October 1988, Page 36

Tyson not manic-depressive says psychiatrist

NZPA-AP New York The heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, is ri>>t, and has never been, a manic depressive, a psychiatrist said after examining the fighter on Tuesday. Dr Abraham Halpern, chairman of the psychiatry department of United Hospital at Port Chester in New York, said Tyson "showed no sign of abnormality and he had no delusionary ideas.” Tyson has been besieged by personal problems since knocking out Michael Spinks in his last title defence in June. After an auto accident last month at Catskill, in New York, Tyson was evaluated by a psychiatrist, Dr Henry McCurtis, at the urging of the fighter’s actress wife, Robin Givens, and mother-in-law, Ruth Roper. Dr McCurtis reportedly diagnosed Tyson as a manic depressive and reportedly prescribed lithium carbonate. Dr Halpern said on Tuesday tht he had spoken to Dr McCurtis, who denied making that diagnosis. “Dr McCurtis used the expression ‘mood-regulatory problems’. There’s something in that,” Dr Halpern said.

He described the fighter’s frame of mind as “most of the time within the range of normal. He’s under more pressure than most of us.” Dr Halpern said the best thing for Tyson would be to get back into the ring. Tyson is hoping to start training in preparation for a scheduled December fight against Frank Bruno in London’s Wembley Stadium. The bout has already been postponed twice. Tyson, aged 22, seemed to have everything going for him after his first-round knockout of Spinks, but has had little to cheer about since. Tyson brought traffic to a halt in New York on Tuesday as hundreds of New Yorkers shouted advice to him on his marital problems. The main advice seemed to be to dump his wife. Police had to squeeze the burly boxer through a crowd of hundreds of squealing secretaries and shouting shoppers so that he could get into a car waiting in front of his manager's office. Tyson went to the office to interview a new doctor, according to staff. His manager.

Bill Clayton, has said he wants Tyson to be examined by a new psychiatrist to determine whether he suffers from manic-depression. Members of the crowd shouted: “Get rid of her” — a reference to Tyson’s actress wife, Robin Givens, who flew to California after calling police to calm Tyson down after he hurled furniture out the window of their New Jersey mansion. Others in the crowd shouted "I’m manic, too” and “Come back to us,” a reference to Tyson’s hobnobbing with New York’s jet set. In interviews with New York newspapers published on Tuesday, Tyson said he was in no hurry to see his wife, who calls him “scary.” and added that the last thing he wanted to do was give un his life for love. Chairs, a sugar bowl, a fireplace iron flew out the window of Tyson’s mansion in Bernardsville, New Jersey, in the boxer’s latest highly publicised temper tantrum. “I took an iron from the fireplace and threw it through the window. So what? I paid for it. It’s my house*/’’ Tyson said in tlts interv&ws.