LOS ANGELES – “Friends” star Matthew Perry has died from the “acute effects” of the powerful sedative ketamine, which, combined with other factors, caused the actor to pass out and drown in his Jacuzzi. the autopsy was released on Friday.
The report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office comes nearly seven weeks after Perry, 54, who has publicly admitted to decades of drug and alcohol abuse, was found by his live-in assistant, faceless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home. .
Toxicology tests found ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, in Perry’s system at high levels within the range normally associated with general anesthesia used in controlled surgery, the report said.
“Matthew Perry’s cause of death was determined to be acute ketamine,” the autopsies concluded.
Coronary heart disease, the effects of the opioid addiction medication buprenorphine, were also found in his system, and drowning was cited as a contributing factor in his death, which was ruled an accident.
The concentration of ketamine in Perry’s body overstimulated his heart rate and depressed his breathing, which likely would have caused him to pass out before his face slipped under the water in the hot tub, the report said.
“The exact method of administration in Mr. Perry’s case is unknown,” the report said, adding that traces of the medicine were set up in his stomach. According to him, no last traces of needles were found on his body.
According to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, ketamine is called a “dissociating anesthetic hallucinogen” because it causes feelings of detachment from pain, anxiety, and the environment. It can be injected, mixed with liquid, snorted as a powder, or smoked.
Autopsy results revealed that Perry may have self-medicated with ketamine between doses of the drug under the supervision of a doctor.
According to witness interviews cited in the report, Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat 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 was administered after the last infusion, the report said.
Perry died on October 28, a year after the publication of his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Awful Thing, which chronicled his decade-long addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol. life more than once.
Perry, best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends, had been sober for 19 months with no known relapse into substance abuse before his death, according to interviews cited in the necropsy.
At the scene of his death, investigators did not find alcohol, illegal drugs, or the means to use them. Several nicotine vaping products and an inhaler were found in Perry’s living room. Injectable diabetes medication tirzepatide and nicotine lozenges were in the refrigerator.
The actor quit smoking two weeks earlier, was prescribed Tamoxifen – a hormone regulator commonly taken to prevent breast cancer – for weight loss and received testosterone injections, the report said.
Non-toxic levels of some prescription drugs were found in Perry’s system, but no traces of alcohol, cocaine, heroin or other illegal drugs were found, the report said.
It has since been widely reported that Perry had been playing pickleball in the hours before his death, and a witness who knew the actor told investigators that he appeared to be in “good spirits” when she last spoke to him a few days earlier, the report said. in the report.
