It’s not known exactly how ketamine got into Perry’s body. However, the drug’s involvement in his death suggests possible misuse.
Matthew Perry, “Friends” star, died accidentally from “the acute effects of ketamine,” according to a toxicology report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Other contributing factors in the 54 year old actor’s death included drowning, preexisting coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (Suboxone), which Perry took to treat his opioid use disorder.
Ketamine is sometimes prescribed for major depressive disorder, which apparently it was for Perry. But his last reported physician-administered infusion occurred a week and a half before his death, which is too remote to account for what the autopsy report stated was “high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens.” The drug’s half-life is only three or four hours, which means it would have no longer been in his system from the treatment he got 10 days prior to his passing. This raises questions about whether Perry had used ketamine shortly before dying.
The Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Perry’s cause of death was from ketamine taken not by infusion but in another manner. In addition to infusion git can be administered intranasally by spray. However, the precise route of administration of the ketamine found in Perry’s blood is unknown.
Ketamine has become increasingly popular as an alternative therapy for depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other hard-to-treat mental health problems.
