“I'm not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?”

This is what ‘Friends’ actor Matthew Perry’s character Chandler Bing was known for. He was known for being funny. However, he had his own struggles in his personal life and those struggles were acute depression. He was treating it with ketamine infusion therapy which is legal in the US and the UK.

What is Ketamine infusion therapy?

Ketamine is an anaesthetic used to treat depression, anxiety and pain under supervised and controlled medical settings. However, it does have its side effects, which can lead to distortion of sight, sound and time. It can also produce calming and relaxing effects.

Ketamine increases a person’s heart rate and blood pressure. If overdosed, it can leave users confused and agitated and can cause them to hurt themselves without even realising it. It can also lead to liver damage and bladder problems.

However, when used in moderation and under the supervision of medical doctors, it can treat depression where traditional antidepressants have failed.

Prof Rupert McShane, a University of Oxford psychiatrist who runs an NHS ketamine treatment clinic told BBC that ketamine “probably turns off the area of the brain that is involved in disappointment.”

Can Ketamine Infusion Therapy Kill Someone?

In simple terms, it cannot, be if the dosage is given in a controlled setting and as prescribed. Ketamine infusion therapy uses drugs in small doses than those used for anaesthesia. It acts faster than traditional anti-depressants, but the effects also wear off way quickly. Which is why it is important to monitor patients’ mental state for relapsing back into depression and discouraging them from overdosing on it.

There are ways of giving people ketamine. One of the ways is through “infusing”, which means to use an IV drip. However, injections, nasal sprays and capsules are also methods used to give people ketamine.

Since the dosage of ketamine used in the infusion treatment is small, it being the reason of actor Perry’s death was ruled out. The medical examiner also noted that Perry’s last ketamine infusion therapy session happened more than a week before his death, which means by the time he had died, it must have worn off.

So, What Happened To Perry?

Though Perry’s last session was more than a week before, his post-mortem showed that his blood contained a high concentration of ketamine. He had died of the “acute effects” of ketamine.

If it was not his session, then how did he get ketamine?

Prosecutors alleged that his assistant gave him at least 27 shots of ketamine in four days before his death, reported BBC.

Perry has been open about his personal struggles and this is what the doctors and dealers used against him. Martin Estrada, the US attorney for California’s Central District told the BBC that people took advantage of his condition. They charged him 165 times more than what vials of ketamine cost.

Names that have come up include Dr Salvador Plasencia, drug dealers “Ketamine Queen” aka Jasveen Sangha and Eric Fleming, and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.

Who Are These Names And What Did They Do?

Ketamine Queen or Sangha supplied drugs that led to Perry’s death. Her home was a “drug-selling emporium,” said Estrada. More than 80 vials of ketamine, and thousands of pills including methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax were allegedly found in her house known as the “Sangha Stash House.”

Sangha is known to deal with high-end celebs and was a “major source of supply for ketamine to others as well as Perry,” said Estrada.

Dr Plasencia called Perry a “moron” while charging him $2,000 for vials that cost only $12. He sold Perry 20 vials of ketamine between September and October 2023, costing $55,000.

He was the one who taught Iwamasa, who had no medical knowledge to inject the drug. This is after he knew that “Perry’s ketamine addiction was spiralling out of control,” as per what the investigators told the BBC.

Another dealer Fleming was told by Sangha to “delete all our messages.” While Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs unlawfully, he also allegedly messaged Sangha: “Please call...Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry] only his assistant. So the assistant was the enabler.”

The court documents also revealed that he asked Sangha on whether the ketamine stays in your system or “is it immediately flushed out.”

Dr Pepper, Bots, Cans

The people who allegedly exploited Perry used coded language for ketamine and called it “Dr Pepper”, “bots”, or “cans.”

Selling overpriced drugs, taking advantage of Perry’s mental condition and falsifying medical records to make the drugs given to him look legitimate by Dr Plasencia is what took Perry’s life.

Iwamasa is said to have administered more than 20 shots of ketamine and three on the day Perry died. Whereas ketamine is only administered by a physician. Authorities also found that weeks before Perry’s death, Dr Plasencia allegedly bought 10 vials of ketamine and intended to sell to Perry.

He also injected Perry with a large dose, two days later. This caused him to “freeze up” and spiked his blood pressure.

When I Die, I Want Helping Others To Be The First Thing That’s Mentioned

Perry had always been open about his drug addictions, struggles with alcohol and his depression. He said that his openness would help others who are also struggling and wanted to be remembered by his quote which also is on the homepage of the Mattew Perry Foundation that helps others struggling with the disease of addiction: “When I die, I want helping others to be the first thing that’s mentioned.”

Five arrests have been made in the case so far.

A US woman undergoing routine knee surgery at a Nashville hospital was left paralyzed following a medical mistake in which potassium was reportedly given instead of the intended anesthetic.

Speaking to the media, her daughter-in-law said that while the 72-year-old’s knee replacement went well, potassium administered during spinal anesthesia instead of bupivacaine has left her paralyzed.

“The joint replacement went wonderfully. Her knee is great. The rest of her is not,” daughter-in-law Kristina Dorton was quoted as saying by WSMV.com.

What Went Wrong During the Knee Surgery?

On August 14, her mother-in-law went in for a routine knee replacement at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown. Everything appeared normal for the healthy 72-year-old until the surgical team realized that she had been given the wrong medicine during spinal anesthesia.

“It was supposed to be the anesthetic. It was supposed to be Bupivacaine, and it was potassium, and we don’t know what quantity,” Dorton said.

According to Dorton, when her mother-in-law woke up from surgery, she was sent to the intensive care unit. While the knee replacement was successful, her family is worried that she may never be able to feel her knee or any part of her lower body again.

“Currently, she has zero feeling, movement, or response to pain from her breastbone down. We don’t know what recovery looks like or if there is recovery,” Dorton said.

Four Patients Reportedly Impacted

According to media reports, the woman was not the only patient affected. An investigation found that as many as four patients were impacted by similar “events” involving the administration of the wrong medication at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown.

“Our hearts are with the four patients and their families impacted by this event. On behalf of our leadership and care teams, I am deeply sorry for the harm caused to our patients,” Dr. Shubhada Jagasia, president and CEO of Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital’s Midtown, said in a statement.

However, hospital officials did not confirm whether the other patients also received potassium instead of the intended anesthetic, stating that they would not provide specific clinical details to protect patients’ privacy.

While Jagasia said the hospital is ensuring that affected patients have access to the resources and ongoing care they need, Dorton said treatment aimed at reversing her mother-in-law’s paralysis has not worked.

“This is life-changing. You don’t come out of this without some type of life-altering, catastrophic deficit,” Dorton said.

“We just are hoping that publicizing this gets some sort of genius somewhere that knows what to do… Time is of the essence here for recovery,” Dorton added.

When Can Potassium Turn Dangerous?

Potassium is an essential mineral that helps the body function. While it plays important roles in blood pressure regulation, bone health and kidney function, having too much potassium in the blood can lead to serious and potentially life-threatening problems.

Too much potassium in the blood is known as hyperkalemia. Severe hyperkalemia can affect the heart’s electrical activity and cause dangerous abnormal heart rhythms or cardiac arrest.

Potassium is also not used as an anesthetic agent. During medical care, potassium levels must be carefully managed because changes in this electrolyte can significantly affect heart and muscle function.

A personalized mRNA cancer vaccine developed by pharma giants Moderna and Merck has shown promise for patients with melanoma, a potentially deadly form of skin cancer, in a late-stage trial.

The vaccine, called intismeran autogene, or mRNA-4157/V940, is custom-made for each patient using the unique genetic blueprint of their tumor.

The Phase 3 results build on earlier Phase 2b findings and showed that the combination of intismeran and Keytruda reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 49% and reduced the risk of distant cancer spread or death by 59% up to five years.

“These Phase 3 findings represent a pivotal moment for the field of cancer research. For many years, the idea of creating an mRNA treatment designed specifically for an individual patient's cancer was aspirational. We are now helping turn that vision into a reality,” said Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

Trial Shows Longer Cancer-Free Survival

The Phase 3 INTerpath-001 trial met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and a key secondary endpoint of distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS).

Intismeran autogene in combination with Keytruda demonstrated statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in RFS and DMFS compared with Keytruda alone.

The findings were seen in patients with stage IIB, IIC, III, or IV cutaneous melanoma who had undergone complete surgical removal of their cancer and had not previously received systemic therapy.

The companies, however, aim to continue evaluation of other key secondary endpoints, including overall survival.

What Is Intismeran Autogene?

Intismeran autogene is an experimental "neoantigen therapy" that uses specific mutations in a patient’s tumor to train the immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells.

The treatment is designed using a patient’s tumor sample to identify the unique mutational signature, or “fingerprint,” of their cancer and generate an anti-tumor immune response.

Each therapy contains synthetic mRNA coding for up to 34 neoantigens and is tailored to the unique biology of an individual patient’s tumor.

After administration, the RNA-encoded neoantigen sequences are translated in the body and presented to the immune system, helping generate specific T-cell responses against cancer cells.

How Was the Phase 3 Trial Conducted?

• 1,137 patients with high-risk, resected stage IIB-IV melanoma took part in the trial.
• Participants were randomly assigned 2:1 to receive either:
• Intismeran autogene + Keytruda
• Keytruda alone
• Intismeran was given every three weeks for up to nine doses.
• Keytruda was given every six weeks for up to nine cycles, for about one year.
• The trial assessed the safety and effectiveness of the combination compared with Keytruda alone.

Were There Any Safety Concerns?

The safety profiles of intismeran autogene and Keytruda in the trial were consistent with those observed in previously reported studies of the combination. No new safety signals were observed.

“Intismeran in combination with pembrolizumab has the potential to establish a new treatment paradigm in the adjuvant melanoma setting, helping patients remain cancer-free for longer,” said Professor Georgina Long, the study’s principal investigator and medical director of Melanoma Institute Australia.

Long said the results “represent a landmark moment for adjuvant melanoma treatment.”

Hair loss is one of the recent and increasingly discussed concerns among people taking popular weight-loss medicines like Ozempic and Zepbound.

A new study has compared hair loss risk linked with these two drugs to obtain a clear picture of whether one drug is more likely to trigger shedding than the other.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, examined the risk of new-onset hair loss among people taking semaglutide or tirzepatide, the active ingredients in Ozempic/Wegovy and Zepbound/Mounjaro, respectively.

The findings emerge at a time when hair loss due to GLP-1 treatment is widely discussed. Even though the findings indicate, the absolute risk of hair loss due to GLP-1 remains relatively low.

Ozempic Vs Zepbound: Which Drug Poses Higher Risk?

The study compared people who were prescribed semaglutide and tirzepatide and looked at newly diagnosed hair loss. The researchers found an association between use of both medications and hair loss, including conditions like telogen effluvium, a form of temporary shedding that can occur after a major physical or metabolic stress.

However, the researchers say that the findings not be interpreted as proof that either drug directly damages hair follicles. The study was based on electronic health data, which helped researchers identify an association but could not establish that the medication itself was the cause of hair loss.

Also read: Nestlé Customizes Drinks For Ozempic, Wegovy Consumers: What Are Protein And Nutrition Needs of GLP-1 Users?

Why Can Weight-Loss Drugs Cause Hair Shedding?

One of the leading explanations suggests that the hair loss has more to do with the rapid change in metabolic health which helps with the weight loss. Researchers have not found evidence that the drug directly attacks the hair follicles.

When the body undergoes a sudden metabolic change, more hair follicles can prematurely enter the resting phase of the hair-growth cycle. Several months later, those hairs can shed. This effect is known as telogen effluvium.

Reduced food intake can also mean some people consume less protein, iron and other nutrients which are essential for for healthy hair growth. These factors could contribute to shedding during a phase of major weight loss.

Previous clinical data have reported hair loss in around 3% of adults taking Wegovy compared with 1% taking placebo, while Zepbound trials reported hair loss in about 4%-5% of users compared with 1% with placebo.

Also read: Paris Jackson Undergoes ‘Painful’ ECT for Depression: Can Electroconvulsive Therapy Reduce Suicide Risk?

Temporary Hair Loss Due To Metabolic Shift

Telogen effluvium is generally a temporary form of hair shedding. Hair follicles remain intact, meaning they can return to their normal growth cycle once the rapid weight loss stabilises.

Hair shedding may become noticeable several months after weight loss begins, rather than immediately after starting the medication. Regrowth can then take several additional months.

However, not every case of hair loss during GLP-1 treatment is necessarily telogen effluvium. Other forms of alopecia can have different causes and require different treatment.

The new findings come amid growing scrutiny of hair loss as a potential adverse effect of GLP-1 medicines.

A separate large study published in The BMJ in July 2026 also found that adults with type 2 diabetes taking GLP-1 receptor agonists had a slightly higher risk of alopecia compared with people taking other diabetes medicines.

Researchers have stressed that more research is needed to understand whether the medicines themselves contribute to hair loss or whether the shedding is related to rapid weight loss and metabolic or nutritional changes.