Five people have been charged by the US attorney’s office for overdosing Friends star Mathew Perry with ketamine, a drug that is used in anaesthesia and in certain antidepressants.
The five include two doctors and his personal assistant, who reportedly injected the actor with at least 27 shots of ketamine in the five days leading up to his death, including at least three on the day he died. Perry was dependent on the drug as he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression. He had diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the drug might have complicated airflow blockage and breathing problems, triggering his death.
WHAT IS KETAMINE?
It’s an anaesthetic which is also used for depression and pain management. “It was introduced long back as an anaesthetic drug as it dissociates a person from pain and sensation. Later, it began to be used as an antidepressant because it dissociates the mood from your current oppressive feelings. That effect lasts a very short time, say for a few hours to two days,” says AIIMS psychiatry professor, Dr Nand Kumar. The rationale is to get ketamine for a short time and then take antidepressant medication because that takes some time to work, maybe 10 days or so.
IS KETAMINE APPROVED?
According to Dr Kumar, it is not officially approved in India. “Ketamine is also not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. It was not approved because both oral formulation and injection are dangerous. As the dose increases, it lowers the consciousness which is why it has been misused often,” he says.
WHAT ABOUT SIDE EFFECTS?
Dr Kumar says the side effects are far too many and severe. “Earlier, when it was used during abortion procedures, many women hallucinated that they were being raped. Apart from hallucination, it can also cause anxiety, blurred vision and speech difficulty. In fact, while the drug can lift the patient out of depression, it builds such a dependency that it can sink the person deeper into depression and exacerbate suicidal thoughts,” he says. If the patient has a history of substance abuse, ketamine use can lead to severe complications and drug dependence.
HOW DOES KETAMINE OVERDOSE IMPACT YOUR HEALTH?
Since it is a relaxant, Dr Kumar says an overdose can slow down breathing with the lung increasing demands on the heart. “It increases blood pressure,” he says. But if your arteries are compromised, then they don’t have the ability to keep pace and get stressed, leading to a sudden cardiac arrest. It is toxic for the urinary bladder and liver. Fatalities are more likely when ketamine is mixed with alcohol, which probably happened in Perry’s case.
WHY CAN IT BE ABUSED BY THE USER?
The “dissociative” effect of the drug causes someone to hallucinate in an altered reality, a sort of high. Since it is a clear liquid and can’t be detected, and even the white powder can be dissolved easily, it has been misused as a date rape drug.
