When you hear about ketamine, you might think of it as a party drug, a horse tranquilizer, or even the substance that led to Matthew Perry’s death. This leads to a commonly asked question: “Is ketamine dangerous?” While this drug has gained a bad reputation over the years, when used under professional supervision, ketamine can be a powerful medicine in treating mental health conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and more.
At lower doses, ketamine is a promising treatment for alleviating mental health symptoms, and at moderate doses, it can also be administered as a sedative during surgeries. However, when taken at higher dosages, ketamine can be dangerous as it can be addictive or cause hallucinations, breathing problems, impaired motor skills, and even death.
In Matthew Perry’s tragic story, while he was receiving ketamine treatments in a professional setting, he was also abusing the drug outside of the clinic at dangerously high doses. Many critics speculate his physician gave him high dosages that were still in his system the night of the incident. However, the last reported clinical visit was a week prior; ketamine generally lasts for one day in your system, with side effects subsiding 2 to 4 hours after treatment. This showed that Perry was taking ketamine outside of the clinic without professional administration. A biopsy revealed that on the night of his death, Perry had combined ketamine with buprenorphine and other medications. Buprenorphine is a medication used to treat opioid addiction, and its side effects include a lowered heart rate. The combination of these substances, along with the fact that Perry was in a hot tub and additionally had coronary artery disease, played a role in the unfortunate fatal overdose.
It’s important to be able to differentiate ketamine facts from fiction through education. Ketamine can be an incredibly effective treatment when taken under the supervision of a physician who can determine the right dosage based on your age, health, and medical history, and monitor you throughout the treatment. In a proper setting, ketamine can be a life-changing therapy for those with mental health conditions. However, with improper and unmonitored dosage, especially when mixed with other medications or health conditions, ketamine can become addictive and cause serious side effects—and in some cases, death.
Contact Bluewater Psychiatry
If you have any questions about ketamine treatment, please reach out to our team at Bluewater Psychiatry. Our goal is to provide you with education, resources, and treatments tailored to your mental health needs.