Photo: PHILLIP FARAONE / AFP
By Mattea Bubalo for the BBC.
Actor Matthew Perry's death was an accident caused by the "acute effects of ketamine", medical officials in Los Angeles have confirmed.
The star was found unresponsive in the pool of his LA home in October, but a post-mortem examination was inconclusive at the time.
Drowning was listed as a contributing factor in his death.
He was best known for playing the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends.
The show followed six young friends living in New York City and aired from 1994 until 2004. Its finale was watched by 52.5 million in the US, making it the most watched TV episode of the 2000s.
At the height of his fame, Perry was battling with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and attended rehabilitation clinics on multiple occasions.
In 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he could not remember three years of filming during Friends, because of drink and drugs.
Other contributing causes of the 54-year-old's death were given as coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid use disorder, the LA County medical examiner said in a statement.
"At the high levels of ketamine found in his post-mortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression," senior deputy medical examiner Raffi Djabourian wrote, according to the Press Association.
"Drowning contributes due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness; coronary artery disease contributes due to exacerbation of ketamine induced myocardial effects on the heart."
He was found unresponsive at his home on 28 October, and paramedics pronounced his death when they were called to the scene.
A day later, the medical examiner's office updated its file to say his case had been deferred, which usually means that the post-mortem is complete but more detail was needed.
*This story was first published on the BBC.
