The main cause of death due to opioid overdose is respiratory depression. In other words, the brain of a person under the influence of opioids can simply forget to breathe. In today’s episode, Michigan Medicine talk with Dr. Erica Levitt, associate professor in the Departments of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology at University of Michigan Medical School, who is trying to explain this connection, with the hope of maintaining the powerful pain relieving effects of opioids without their potentially deadly effects.
