On October 28, 2023, Matthew Perry’s death was announced, and the world lost a friend. Almost two months after the actor’s passing, postmortem records indicate that “acute effects of ketamine” may have been the main cause of his demise.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s toxicological report stated, “At the high levels of ketamine found in his postpartum blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”
The first section of Perry’s postmortem report details the actor’s medical background, which includes diabetes, chronic obstructive lung disease, and prior drug and heavy tobacco use.
In addition, the report notes that although Matthew Perry had a history of serious drug use, at the time of his death, he had stopped smoking and was 19 months clean. The actor’s most recent treatment session occurred a week and a half before his death, according to the autopsy report, which also implies that the star was getting ketamine infusion therapy for his anxiety and depression.
The autopsy report did state that “the precise method of intake in Mr. Perry’s case is unknown.” According to Matthew Perry’s postmortem results, there was a significant amount of ketamine in his bloodstream when he passed away, despite the drug’s half-life often being three to four hours. This runs counter to an earlier finding in the aforementioned autopsy report that indicated Perry had last seen ketamine a week and a half prior to his passing.
About Ketamine Therapy:
Ketamine treatment is the regulated use of ketamine under medical supervision to treat a variety of mental health issues, such as anxiety, PTSD, depression, and other conditions. A well-known dissociative anaesthetic that makes people feel detached from their environment is ketamine. It lets a patient talk with their therapist about feelings, experiences, and memories during psychotherapy.
But because of its hallucinogenic qualities, it can also be misused like a narcotic. In the 1990s, it rose to prominence as a club drug.
