**MATTHEW PERRY’S CAUSE OF DEATH LISTED AS ‘ACUTE EFFECTS OF KETAMINE’**
Matthew Perry, beloved star of the hit TV show “Friends,” was found dead in a hot tub in his Pacific Palisades home on Saturday. He was 54.
The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner released an autopsy report stating that Perry died of “acute effects of ketamine.” Perry had revealed in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” that he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. The actor confessed in his memoir that he used ketamine daily and that it had a profound impact on him.
“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now, and it’s used for two reasons: to ease pain and help with depression,” he wrote in his memoir. “Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty.'”
Although Perry described ketamine as feeling “like a giant exhale,” he also said it felt like he was “dying.” “Oh, I thought, this is what happens when you die. Yet I would continually sign up for this s*** because it was something different, and anything different is good,” he added.
The autopsy revealed trace amounts of ketamine in Perry’s stomach contents, with the exact method of intake being unknown. Perry’s last known ketamine infusion therapy treatment was more than a week prior to his death, and the medical examiner determined that the ketamine in his system at the time of death could not be from that infusion therapy, as ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic drug with established medical and surgical uses, and no foul play was suspected in Perry’s death. He was laid to rest on November 3 at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.
Perry’s death has left fans and loved ones mourning the loss of the talented actor. Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright contributed to this report.