A patient monitoring system may receive a photoplethysmograph (PPG) signal including samples of a pulse waveform. The PPG signal may demonstrate morphology changes based on respiration. The system may calculate morphology metrics from the PPG signal, the first derivative of the PPG signal, the second derivative of the PPG signal, or any combination thereof. The morphology metrics may demonstrate amplitude modulation, baseline modulation, and frequency modulation of the PPG signal that is related to respiration. Morphology metric signals generated from the morphology metrics may be used to determine respiration information such as respiration rate.