BETTER USE AS DIRECTED –
Dec. 21, 2023 – To understand more about ketamine, how it works and when doctors use it to help with depression in supervised settings, we consulted with Dr. Pat Fehling, a psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist. Medical examiners in Los Angeles County determined that Matthew Perry died accidentally due to “acute effects of ketamine” in the “heated end of his swimming pool” on Oct. 28. They found evidence of ketamine in Perry’s stomach and said the quantity was similar to the amount doctors would use during general anesthesia. According to the medical examiner’s investigation, Perry had been using ketamine in supervised settings to cope with depression and recovery from decades of addiction struggles, which Perry chronicled in his book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
Perry was best known for playing the fast-talking, wickedly funny Chandler Bing on the long-running TV hit, “Friends.”
Perry’s last known ketamine treatment had taken place a week-and-a-half prior to his death, and ketamine disappears from the body within hours. So, he must have taken a dose on the day he died, and the ketamine caused cardiovascular “overstimulation and respiratory depression,” according to the medical examiner.
