“Friends” star Matthew Perry’s death has been ruled an accident — the result of the acute effects of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic used to treat depression and PTSD.
According to a report released by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner on Friday, “high levels” of ketamine were present in Perry’s postmortem blood specimens, People reports.
“At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the coroner states in the report.
(Video: YouTube)
Perry, 54, was found in “the heated end of his pool,” the report notes, according to the Associated Press, but his drowning was a secondary factor in his Oct. 28 death.
“Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness,” the coroner stated in the report.
The AP reports: “People close to Perry told investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy, an experimental treatment used to treat depression and anxiety. But the medical examiner said the levels of ketamine in Perry’s body were in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery, and that his last treatment 1 1/2 weeks earlier wouldn’t explain those levels. The drug is typically metabolized in a matter of hours.”
The beloved actor had reportedly been clean for 19 months.
Buprenorphine, known more commonly as Subutex, was also reportedly found in his system and contributed to his death. The drug is used to wean people off opiates — an addiction that Perry detailed in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
Coronary artery disease also factored into his tragic demise.
Dr. Andrew Stolbach, a medical toxicologist with Johns Hopkins Medicine, reviewed the autopsy report for the Associated Press.
The amount of ketamine detected in Perry’s system “would be enough to make him lose consciousness and lose his posture and his ability to keep himself above the water,” he said.
(Video: YouTube)
“Using sedative drugs in a pool or hot tub, especially when you’re alone, is extremely risky and, sadly, here it’s fatal,” he explained.
According to NPR, ketamine use “has evolved since its development in the 1960s as a human and animal anesthetic.”
“Today, it’s known both as a promising new treatment for severe depression and as a psychedelic party drug,” the outlet states.
“In 2006, researchers at the National Institutes of Health showed that an intravenous dose of ketamine could relieve severe depression in a matter of hours,” NPR explains. “That’s compared to other remedies for depression, like Prozac and Zoloft, that often take weeks to ease the condition and don’t work for every patient.”
“In 2018, Dr. Martin Teicher, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital told NPR that he considered the new uses of ketamine as ‘actually one of the biggest advances in psychiatry in a very long time,'” the outlet notes.
But, like the “date rape drugs,” Rohypnol and GHB, ketamine has been slipped to victims of sexual abuse “because of its effect on memory,” according to the Department of Justice.
“The initial ‘high’ is followed by amnesia,” the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs warned.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA), “Special K,” as ketamine is known on the streets, “is a dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects.”
“Ketamine distorts the perception of sight and sound and makes the user feel disconnected and not in control,” the DEA states. “It is referred to as a ‘dissociative anesthetic hallucinogen’ because it makes patients feel detached from their pain and environment.”
Its “unwanted side effects” include “agitation, depression, cognitive difficulties, unconsciousness, and amnesia.”
As NPR notes, “It’s unclear still how or when Perry received more ketamine in the hours before he died.”
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Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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