According to the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office autopsy report, actor Matthew Perry, Chandler in the popular series ‘Friends’, died from the “acute effects” of ketamine.
The actor, who was found face down in the jacuzzi at his home, had high levels of this anesthetic drug which is increasingly being used as a treatment for depression .
Matthew Perry autopsy report
The autopsy report acknowledges that Perry was being subjected to a ketamine infusion therapybut claims that the amount found in his body could not have been the result of his last session, which was more than a week earlier.
Likewise, the autopsy report adds that:
“With the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood samples, the principal lethal effects would be both the cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression“.
They also claim that, in the final analysis of the life of an actor who spent half his life fighting his addictions to alcohol and drugs, as he recounts in his book ‘Friends, Lovers and That Terrible Thing’, found no evidence of alcohol, cocaine or methamphetamine.
what is ketamine and what is it used for?
Scientifically it is a short-acting injectable dissociative anesthetic which can have hallucinogenic effects in certain doses.
“With psychedelic properties, it has the ability to distort perceptions of sight and hearing, and makes people who take it feel detached from pain and their surroundings.”
Its known origin dates back to the 1960swhen it began to be used as an anesthetic on the battlefields. And it has been legal since 1970, for use in both humans and animals.
In addition, it is frequently used as anesthetic for children.
Psychiatric use of ketamine
In recent years, ketamine has begun to be used as a drug to treat:
Depression. Chronic pain. Suicidal ideation.
But their use for these ailments is not regulated, although in 2019 the American FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved a version of ketamine nasal spray to treat resistant depressions to known treatments.
And specialists assured several times that, as long as it is prescribed by a doctor and in the necessary setting and with the recommended doses, ketamine is not a risk drug.
Risks and possible effects of ketamine
The death of Matthew Perry has once again set off alarm bells about this increasingly widespread drug, and consumed in the drug world:
Inhaled in powder form. Intranasally via aerosol.
And, although ketamine as a drug is considered a “safe drug, which is rarely lethal“. The current alarm arises because its use outside the medical field is becoming more and more widespread.
A worrying question because, while it is true that it can cause a moderate or low physical dependence, psychological dependence can be very high.
So, in the case of an overdose, it can cause:
Loss of consciousness. Extremely slow breathing, with its attendant dangers.
Specifically, in the case of Matthew Perry the coroner’s report states that what was found on his body “is a extremely high amount, comparable to an anesthetic dose“.
FDA warning in the month of October
In the middle of last October, on the 11th to be precise, the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) published a warning on the use of “compounded versions of ketamine.”.
It referred to the new modified or adapted versions that were being used without medical supervision.
And it warned of “the risk of dangerous psychiatric reactions and health problems such as:
Increased blood pressure, Respiratory depression, Urinary tract problems that can lead to incontinence.”
A warning with which the agency was coming out in the face of the increasingly widespread use of this anesthetic in those who seek therapies outside of their physician’s care, with the aim of overcoming problems of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health problems difficult to treat.
Medical use of ketamine or purchase online
The FDA warning sought fundamentally to differentiate two uses that have nothing to do with each other.
On the one hand, the medical use of ketamine, supervised and used in clinics as psychiatric therapy. And, on the other hand, that of those people who buy it on the Internet and administer it at home without the intervention of a specialist.
And he warned that:
“With the exception of esketamine, a nasal spray federally approved ketamine nasal spray for resistant depression to treatment, the psychiatric use of ketamine is neither approved nor regulated“.
Unauthorized forms of ketamine
Unauthorized use of ketamine is not illegal in the United States. And, perhaps, it is this regulatory vacuum that has opened the door to increasing abuse.
Because today, ketamine has gained widespread popularity as a “Special K”, a disco drug that is generally snorted.
And more recently, a very successful therapy of injected ketamine theoretically intended for patients with difficult-to-treat psychiatric problems.
In addition, low-cost ketamine pills, tablets or nasal sprays can be found on the internet after a brief video interview.
But the ketamine compounds, used without guarantees and without medical supervision, are risky products that are not to be recommendedthey have not even been proven to have beneficial effects.
Ketamine in Spain
Spain was the first country to approve a ketamine-based nasal spray, Esketamine, intended for patients who do not respond to treatments for depression and could be at risk of suicide.
As far as ketamine is concerned, it is not yet included in the portfolio of services of the National Health System (SNS). But that does not seem to be an impediment to making use of it. In fact, 0.9% of the Spanish population (about 423,000 people) consume it outside the legal frameworkaccording to the 2022 Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey.
Therefore, experts insist (and back it up with the death of the famous actor from the series ‘Friends’) that this drug should not be taken without medical supervision.
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