Matthew Perry’s Cause of Death Involves Ketamine
Matthew Perry’s toxicology results have been released, showing that the Friends star died from “the acute effects of ketamine.” Per ABC News, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Perry was using the drug as part of infusion therapy for depression and anxiety less than two weeks before his death in October. However, the amount of ketamine found in his system at the time of his death “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less,” the coroner’s office reports.
Additionally, the contributory factors in Perry’s death included drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine effects. Buprenorphine is used to diminish the effects of physical dependency to opioids, such as withdrawal symptoms and cravings. According to the Medical Examiner, ketamine caused both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression. While Matthew was open about his history of substance abuse, no illicit narcotics were found at his home. As we previously reported, Perry suffered from alcoholism and addiction issues. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, the actor detailed his addiction journey. A few years ago, he almost died due to his colon bursting from opioid overuse. When Perry was first cast on Friends as Chandler Bing at 24, his alcohol addiction was just starting to surface. He wrote in his memoir, “I could handle it, kind of. But by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble.”
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Perry died at the age of 54 on October 28. He was found unresponsive in his jacuzzi. First responders rushed to his property on a cardiac arrest call made by his assistant, and he was declared deceased on the scene after an apparent drowning. Perry’s career began in the ’80s. The actor racked up one-off or small arc appearances in a number of popular TV shows. They included Silver Spoons, The Tracey Ullman Show, Just the Ten of Us, Empty Nest and Growing Pains.
Perry, of course, reached incredible levels of stardom along with the rest of the cast of Friends. The series ran for 234 episodes from 1994-2004. During the show’s run, Perry received one Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2002 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Friends won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002.
