Naloxone is used to reverse the coma and respiratory depression of opioid overdose. It rapidly displaces all receptor-bound opioid molecules and, therefore, is able to reverse the effect of a morphine overdose. Within 30 seconds of IV injection of naloxone, the respiratory depression and coma characteristic of high doses of morphine are reversed, causing the patient to be revived and alert.Naloxone has a half-life of 30 to 81 minutes. [Note: Because of its relatively short duration of action, a depressed patient who has been treated and recovered may lapse back into respiratory depression.] Naloxone is a competitive antagonist at µ, κ, and δ, receptors, with a tenfold higher affinity for µ than for κ receptors. This may explain why naloxone readily reverses respiratory depression with only minimal reversal of the analgesia that results from agonist stimulation of κ receptors in the spinal cord. Naloxone produces no pharmacologic effects in normal