'Can't Buy Me Love' Actress Death: Amanda Peterson Overdosed After Self-Medicating on Morphine

MStars News has learned that an autopsy revealed that Can't Buy Me Love actress Amanda Peterson died from an overdose of morphine after she self-medicated herself to help ease the pain from a hysterectomy. Peterson also had a number of other prescription drugs in her system at the time of her death.

According to People, Peterson had told a witness that she "had taken a friend's morphine for unspecified pain," a week prior to her sudden death back in July.

"For unclear reasons, it appears that the decedent was attempting to self-medicate her pain at the time of death," Pathologist and University of Colorado-Denver professor Dr. Micheal Burson stated in the autopsy report.

Other medications in her system at the time of death included some to help with depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia. The former teenage star also had traces of marijuana, which is legal in Colorado where she lived.

"Of the medications detected in the blood, all were within therapeutic limits," Burson added in his notes. One that wasn't detected was the pain-killer gabapentin. "That drug, which had been prescribed to treat pain from a hysterectomy, had levels six times higher than normal, though it is not listed as a factor in her death."

The doctor explained that Peterson's death was "morphine naïve, meaning she had not built up a resistant to the drug." Peterson died at 43 attempting to manage her pain with morphine without knowledge of what the medication could do if used too much.

The correct title of her death is described as an "acute morphine toxicity from an accidental overdose."

Peterson had some past issues in her life. She spent some time behind bars back in 2005 and her last arrest before her death was in May 2012 for a DUI and possession of narcotic equipment.

MStars News previously reported that Sylvia Peterson, the actress' mother, believed her daughter's former medical problems were what killed her daughter. "It's a big loss. Such a loveable person," Sylvia previously stated. "She had some medical problems with her heart but we don't know the cause yet."

Peterson's father believed that his daughter had died from sleep apnea. "She had some illness and a sleep apnea problem that may have contributed," he said.