NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: Matthew Perry's death has come as a major shock to not just Hollywood but the whole world. The 'Friends' star passed away at just 54 from what is still considered a mysterious case of drowning.
An addiction expert Dr Drew Pinsky, invited as a guest on the Fox News show 'Jesse Watters Primetime,' suspected that Perry's past of drug addiction, besides just being a possible cause, could also be the fault of his physician.
Addiction expert admits to doctors over-prescribing opioid
In explaining the addiction problem of the country that significantly rose around the 90s and early 2000s, Pinsky admitted that it was the fault of doctors for repeatedly prescribing opioid painkillers.
"Well, Fentanyl is really the problem right now, right? Most people can't afford to stay with oral opioids. First of all, the problem with my profession is, we were over-prescribing opioids. The drug manufacturers obviously blew wind in the sails of that trend. We made massive mistakes and created a drug addiction hand over fist."
He continued, "We're still dealing with that. A lot of those people went on heroin and now they've gone on to fentanyl and it's killing over 100,00 people a year."
The expert then revealed that Perry might be one of the victims of overprescribing by his doctor.
Expert suggests Matthew Perry was overprescribed painkillers
Perry had struggled with substance abuse for years and had to go through multiple surgeries and rehabs to reach a point of sobriety, at one point even going into a coma for several days.
Pinsky suspected that his addiction might have been caused by his physician.
"Be very careful when physicians think they are saving the world from something like Covid or pain. Whatever it might be, you need consensus, you need a very careful risk-reward always in your head before you prescribe anything to a patient."
He then added, "My fear in Matthew Perry's case is that there's going to be somebody prescribing. One of the biggest risks of being a celebrity is getting involved with a physician who gets sort of excited about taking care of a special person and really doesn't understand what can happen with the disease of addiction."
"If somebody gave him a benzodiazepine, that person is culpable," Pinsky concluded.
Host Watters then went on to comment, "There's a famous saying that the quickest way to assure death is having a personal physician."
"Well, certainly if you are a celebrity," the doctor replied.
