Los Angeles: “Friends” star Matthew Perry died from “acute effects” of the powerful sedative ketamine, which, among other factors, caused the actor to pass out and drown in a hot tub, according to an autopsy released Friday.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s report comes nearly seven weeks after Perry, 54, who has publicly admitted to decades of drug and alcohol abuse, was found by an aide in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home, floating face down and lifeless.
Toxicology tests found ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, in Matthew Perry’s body at high levels typically associated with general anesthesia used in monitored surgical treatment, the report said.
“Matthew Perry’s cause of death was determined to be acute exposure to ketamine,” the autopsy concluded.
Coronary artery disease, the effects of the opioid addiction drug buprenorphine, were also found in his system, and drowning was listed as a contributing factor in his death, which was ruled an accident.
The concentration of ketamine in Perry’s body would have overstimulated his heart rate while suppressing his breathing, likely rendering him unconscious before his face slipped under the hot tub’s water, the report said.
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“In Mr. Perry’s case, the exact method of administration is unknown,” the report said, adding that traces of the drug were found in his stomach. No recent needle marks were found on his body, it said.
Referred to as a “dissociative anesthetic hallucinogen” because it causes pain, anxiety and feelings of detachment from the environment, ketamine can be injected, mixed with liquids, snorted as a powder, or smoked, according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Autopsy findings suggest Perry may have self-medicated with ketamine in between medically supervised drug treatments.
According to witness interviews cited in the report, Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. But his last known treatment was a week and a half before his death, so the ketamine found in his system by medical examiners would have been administered after the last infusion, the report said.
Perry’s death on Oct. 28 came a year after the publication of his memoir, Friends, Adorers and the Great Horror, which chronicled his decades-long addiction to painkillers and alcohol, a battle he said was nearing its end. his life many times.
Matthew Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the 1990s television sitcom Friends, had been sober for 19 months with no known drug relapse before his death, according to interviews cited in the autopsy.
Investigators found no alcohol, illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia at the scene of his death. Numerous nicotine vapor products and inhalers were found in Perry’s living room. Injections of the anti-diabetic drug tripeptide and nicotine lollipops were in the refrigerator.
The report said the actress quit smoking two weeks earlier, was prescribed tamoxifen — a hormone regulator commonly taken to prevent breast cancer — to lose weight and was receiving testosterone injections.
Perry’s body showed non-toxic levels of some prescription drugs, but no traces of alcohol, cocaine, heroin or other illegal drugs, the report said.
It has since been reported that Perry had been playing pickleball in the hours before his death, and a witness who knew the actor told investigators he seemed to be in “good spirits” when he last spoke to him a few days ago, the report said.
