Why Celebrities Get Poor Addiction Care

The sordid death of Matthew Perry has been all over the headlines recently. The more we learn about what transpired, the worse it gets. The doctors he was illegally purchasing ketamine from were disrespectful, mercenary drug dealers who, thankfully, will never practice medicine again.  Mr. Perry’s live-in celebrity assistant – who, obviously, has no medical training - blindly and recklessly followed instructions to inject Mr. Perry with ever higher dosages of ketamine. Mr. Perry has a history of severe addiction and shouldn’t, under any circumstances, have been calling the shots about dosage and frequency of injections of this powerful, psychoactive drug. This is particularly true for an unregulated dissociative anesthetic such as ketamine which, under different circumstances, can be quite safe and helpful for treatment resistant depression. All of this culminated in Mr. Perry being found dead, submerged alone in his hot tub.

Could this death have been avoided? Do celebrities have a difficult time getting reasonably adequate treatment for addiction? Is their care even more chaotic and patchwork than the care the rest of us receive?                                                                       

Matthew Perry was not alone in his struggles.  About forty million Americans have a substance use disorder, about half of whom are in recovery. This can be a deadly disease for anyone. The proof of this is that we lose about a hundred thousand or so people every year to drug overdoses.  Yet, from Prince, to Tom Petty, to Michael K. Williams, it seems that celebrities have some unique challenges to treating their addictions. In many ways, they can be particularly vulnerable.