Authorities Close Investigation Surrounding Matthew Perry’s Death

The Los Angeles Police Department has officially closed its investigation of actor Matthew Perry’s death, it announced on Tuesday. Representatives for LAPD told reporters from PEOPLE that it will not be digging any deeper into this death, and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coronor’s website lists the case as “closed” as well. Perry’s official cause of death is listed as an accident brought on by the acute effects of ketamine.

Perry passed away on Sunday, Oct. 28, 2023, at his home in Los Angeles, California at the age of 54. First responders were contacted about a “medical emergency” and arrived around 4 p.m. to find the former Friends star unresponsive in his hot tub. Because of Perry’s history with substance abuse, some fans feared that he had suffered some kind of overdose during a relapse, but at the time Perry’s friends and family were confident that he had been clean and sober for at least 19 months. However, the coroner determined that Perry was abusing ketamine to some extent at the time of his death.

Perry was receiving ketamine infusion therapy – a relatively new treatment for severe depression that has been growing in popularity in recent years. Ketamine was first created as an anesthesia for animals and was later approved for use on humans as well. First responders found the drug useful for people who had recently survived suicide attempts, which led Dr. Ken Stewart to believe that it might have more persistent benefits for those experiencing suicidal thoughts in general. At the same time, ketamine grew in popularity as a club drug. It provides a “dissociative experience” similar in some ways to a hallucinogen.

The stigma around recreational drugs has slowed the acceptance of ketamine therapy for treatment-resistant depression, but it is easy to find in a city like L.A. Investigators found that Perry was receiving the therapy from a reputable establishment, but determined that his last infusion had been at least 10 days before his death. By comparison, the autopsy showed that Perry had used ketamine within four hours of his death. The autopsy also showed the presence of buprenorphine in his system – a drug used to treat opioid use disorder by mitigating withdrawal symptoms.

The coroner’s conclusion was that the acute effects of ketamine contributed to Perry’s death along with coronary artery disease. However, the actor ultimately succumbed to accidental drowning when he slipped beneath the water in his hot tub. Perry’s legacy of helping others battle addiction still endures, and many friends, fans and colleagues focused on that in their tributes to Perry on social media.