What is Ketamine and Why Did Matthew Perry Use It

What is Ketamine and Why Did Matthew Perry Use It?

More than a month after the Friends actor's death on October 28, the Los Angeles coroner determined that the cause of Matthew Perry's death was the harmful effects of ketamine.

Perry was found unconscious in the pool at his residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles. Paramedics were on scene and pronounced the actor dead.

In addition to the “harmful effects” of high levels of ketamine, drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder, contributed to Perry's death. The death was determined to be accidental.

That's what the medical examiner's autopsy report said Perry received ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety, the last therapy was “apparently a week and a half before death”. The autopsy report indicates that ketamine was found in Perry's body at the time of death “It couldn't have come from this infusion therapy, as the average duration of ketamine use is three to four hours or less.”

The report states that although the method of ingestion could not be determined, traces of the substance were found in Perry's stomach.

“Given the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood samples, the main fatal effects would be both hyperstimulation of the cardiovascular system and respiratory depression,” the autopsy report states.

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Perry had taken drugs in the past, but He had been clean for “19 months.”, according to the report. The actor had spoken openly about his battle with addiction, which dates back to his time on the hit series Friends in the 1990s.

What is ketamine and how does it work?

According to the DEA, ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects. Its medical uses include the induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used to treat depression.

The substance was first synthesized in 1962 and approved as an anesthetic in the United States in 1970. Although commonly found in medications such as horse tranquilizers, it has also been used for decades to treat smaller animals and humans.

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Ketamine grew in popularity in the 1970s and 1980s as it was used as an illegal party drug and was also known as “Special K.” It is still used as a recreational drug today.

Some psychotherapists claim that the drug works similarly to other antidepressants because it stimulates feel-good chemicals in the brain. It can also reduce inflammation and form new neural pathways associated with the ability to form new habits and behaviors.

Is esketamine different? Is it legal?

The FDA approved a version of ketamine called esketamine, or Spravato, in 2019. This is an inhaled version that must be administered in a doctor's office and is only approved for people who have had other treatments for depression that have not worked for them.

According to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, esketamine has been found to help reduce depression with suicidal thoughts. It is thought to work differently than traditional antidepressants, which may help those who have not responded to these treatments.

According to Columbia, patients are typically treated with esketamine for eight weeks, with multiple therapies per week. Columbia added that patients receiving the treatment “typically experience mild sedation and dissociation.”

Is Ketamine Safe to Use?

Growing interest in psychedelics as a mental health treatment has led to a boom in clinics across the U.S. promoting the substance, which is popular on the club scene. Using ketamine to treat depression is legal and doctors say it can be groundbreaking, but it's also a largely unregulated industry that poses serious risks.

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According to Columbia University Irving Medical Center, ketamine is an “effective and safe anesthetic” when administered intravenously. Columbia also promotes its use to treat several psychotic disorders, including depression.

Because it is an FDA-approved drug, any doctor can prescribe it, although not intravenous ketamine, which is not approved. Columbia states that the initial infusion treatment occurs over two to three weeks, with each therapy lasting one to two hours. But they point out that, as with Eskatemina, Treatment is not indicated for patients suffering from psychosis or actively abusing drugs or alcohol.

And although ketamine is legal, it is not approved to treat psychiatric disorders. However, Dan Iosifescu, professor of psychiatry at the Grossman School of Medicine at New York University, is one of the specialists who advocate the use of this method to treat patients with psychological problems.

“People with very severe, difficult-to-treat depression could improve greatly within 24 hours of a single treatment,” he told NBC New York in May.

“Unfortunately, there are clinics that I have referred patients to that have not followed monitoring protocols. In my opinion, this puts patients at some risk,” said Iosifescu.

What are the possible risks and side effects of ketamine use?

James Murrough of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is confident about the benefits of ketamine treatment. But he also points out that patients often require longer treatment, which poses risks.

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“We need to think very carefully about how much ketamine we use and how often to help a patient and maintain treatment,” Murrough said.

And he added that the drug often stops working when people stop taking it. Aside from that, Long-term recreational use in high doses can cause serious side effectssuch as memory loss, mood swings and loss of cognitive function.

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“The number of people developing addiction is relatively small, but we must not let our guard down,” Murrough said.

With information from NBC New York and The New York Times