Before he passed away from “acute effects of ketamine,” actor Matthew Perry shared details about using the drug in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
Videos by Suggest
In an excerpt provided by Fox News, Perry wrote about his use of ketamine and how he had ketamine infusions daily. “Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s,” the Friends star wrote. “There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression.”
Matthew Perry further stated that the drug has his name written all over it. “They might as well call it ‘Matty,’” he continued. Perry noted the drug felt like a “giant exhale,” but he said it felt like he was like he was “dying.”
“Oh, I thought, this is what happens when you die,” Perry recalled using ketamine. “Yet I would continually sign up for this s— because it was something different, and anything different is good.”
Matthew Perry further declared that taking ketamine (or K to him) was like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. “But the hangover was over,” he admitted. “And outweighed the shovel. Ketamine was not for me.”
Perry reportedly passed away after an apparent drowning in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles-area residence on Oct. 28. Before dying, he had been active, including playing pickleball the morning of his death. He was 54 years old when he passed.
The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner released the autopsy report on Friday, Dec. 15, revealing that the actor had died from “acute effects of ketamine.”
Matthew Perry Recieved Ketamine Infusion Therapy for Depression and Anxiety
According to the autopsy report, Matthew Perry had been receiving ketamine infusion for depression and anxiety before his unexpected death.
However, it was reported that Perry’s last known treatment was more than a week before his sudden passing. The report confirmed that the ketamine in his system at death could not be from the infusion therapy. This is due to ketamine’s half-life being 3 to 4 hours or less.
The autopsy did confirm that ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug with “established medical and surgical uses.”
It was noted that the ketamine in Perry’s system caused both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Officer further pointed out that there was no evidence of alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, PCP, or fentanyl in Matthew Perry’s system. Other factors in the Friends star’s death were drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine effects. No foul play is suspected.