Since “Friends” star Matthew Perry was found unresponsive in his pool this October at age 54, fans have wondered what caused his death.
On Friday, the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner announced that “acute effects of ketamine,” caused his death. It also announced that the death was accidental. What exactly is ketamine?
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, ketamine is “a dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects.”
In 1962, when Calvin Stevens of the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical laboratory synthesized the drug from phencyclidine, a molecule with psychodysleptic, hallucinogenic and dissociative properties, explained a 2022 article published in the Annales pharmaceutiques françaises. It was first administered to humans two years later in a Michigan prison and a patent for use was filed in 1966.
Ketamine is approved in the U.S. as a short-acting anesthetic for use in humans and animals and as a nasal spray for the treatment of depression, the DEA said. According to the Mayo Clinic, IV-infused ketamine has been increasingly used off label as a depression treatment and it has been studied as a treatment for other disorders as well.
When a person takes ketamine, their perception of sight and sound can become distorted. It can also make people feel disconnected and not in control and is referred to as a “dissociative anesthetic hallucinogen” since it can make patients feel detached from their pain and environment, the DEA said.
While ketamine can induce a state of sedation, immobility and relief from pain it can also cause amnesia and is sometimes abused for the dissociative sensations and hallucinogenic effects. Ketamine is also sometimes abused to facilitate sexual assault.
“The first cases of ketamine abuse were reported in 1992 in France, leading to special surveillance by the health authorities, and its inclusion in the list of narcotic drugs in 1997,” said the Annales pharmaceutiques françaises article. “Today, ketamine has become an attractive substance for recreational use, gradually emerging from alternative techno circles to spread to more commercial party scenes.”
Per the DEA, street names for ketamine include cat tranquilizer, cat valium, kit kat, purple and special k.
“Ketamine may cause unwanted side effects such as: agitation, depression, cognitive difficulties, unconsciousness, and amnesia… involuntarily rapid eye movement, dilated pupils, salivation, tear secretions, and stiffening of the muscles, possible nausea,” the DEA said.
Unconsciousness and dangerously slowed breathing can indicate a ketamine overdose.
According to the County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner contributing factors in Perry’s death included drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder. Perry was very open about his struggle with substance abuse and he worked to help others with addiction.
Per Drugs.com, “using ketamine together with buprenorphine may increase side effects such as dizziness, drowsiness, confusion, difficulty concentrating, excessive sedation, and respiratory depression.”
Perry was found in his Los Angeles pool on Oct. 28 and an autopsy was performed Oct. 29.
Following Perry’s death, an outpouring of messages came in from his friends and former co-stars, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Gwyneth Paltrow and, of course, the cast of “Friends”.
“I want people to know he was really healthy, and getting healthy. He was on a pursuit. He worked so hard. He really was dealt a tough one,” Jennifer Aniston – who said she had been texting with Perry on the morning of Oct. 28 – told Variety, per an article published this week.