Matthew Perry detailed ketamine treatments 1 year before death

Matthew Perry wrote about receiving ketamine treatments to “relieve pain and help with depression” almost a year before his death.

“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is now a synthetic form of it,” the late actor wrote in his 2022 memoir Friends, lovers and the big terrible thing. “Wrote my name all over it – they might as well have called it ‘Matty’.”

Perry called the drug a “giant exhale,” revealing that he would “dissociate” during treatment.

Perry died on October 28 at the age of 54 from “the acute effects of ketamine,” according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s toxicology report, which was released on Friday, December 15.

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In his book, Perry also noted that he felt like he was “dying” when he underwent the ketamine treatments, but explained why he would “constantly sign up for this.”

“It was something different, and anything different is good,” Perry wrote. “Taking K is like getting hit in the head with a giant jolly shovel. But the hangover was intense and heavier than the kick.’

Overall, the Friends alum stated, “Ketamine wasn’t for me.”

Friday’s report also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine — a drug used to treat opioid use disorder — as contributing factors to his death. Perry’s death was ultimately ruled an accident.

Perry was found unconscious in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home on October 28, after authorities were called to the scene in response to a cardiac arrest call. After the initial autopsy report, Perry’s cause of death was “deferred,” according to an Oct. 30 Los Angeles County Medical Examiner report. Further investigation into his death was requested, along with a toxicology report.

Perry became famous through Chandler Bing Friends from 1994 to 2004. During his tenure on the famed NBC comedy, the actor struggled with substance abuse, something he wrote about extensively in his memoir, which revealed he was “completely sober” for just one season of the show. The late star often referred to season 9 as “the season where everyone was talking about Chandler.”

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“You can trace the trajectory of my addiction if you measure my weight from season to season – if I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny it’s pills,” Perry wrote. “If I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills.”

Before his sudden death, Perry said he wanted to be remembered as someone who “wanted to help people,” despite his struggles.

“The best thing about me, bar none, is when an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me?’ I can say yes and follow through and do it,” he said during a November 2022 appearance on the “Q with Tom Power” podcast. ‘If I die, I don’t want to Friends to be the first to be mentioned. I want this to be the first thing that comes up, and I will spend the rest of my life proving that.”