A brain circuit linking pain and breathing may offer a path to prevent opioid deaths
Opioids can kill because they reduce breathing along with pain. Now brain scientists have made a discovery that could lead to potent pain drugs that don't affect breathing.
When people feel pain, they tend to breathe faster. When they take an opioid to ease that pain, their breathing slows. And if they overdose, respiration can stop entirely.
Now scientists have discovered a brain circuit in mice that appears to explain how opioids affect both pain and breathing, a team in the journal
