Christopher Blazes, MD

Dr. Blazes is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at OHSU. He is triple board-certified in psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and emergency medicine and is the director of the OHSU addiction psychiatry Fellowship. Dr Blazes is a clinician educator whose practice is based out of the Portland VA Medical Center. He lectures widely and publishes on such topics as benzodiazepines,  buprenorphine, and the neurobiology of addiction and recovery. He is currently the principal investigator for a trial studying buprenorphine inductions on patients using fentanyl. Recent publications include an article in JAMA Psychiatry describing a new clinical entity, Complex Persistent Benzodiazepine Dependence as well as  “Reconsidering the usefulness of adding naloxone to buprenorphine”.

Recent developments in our understanding of the neurobiology of addiction have potential direct clinical relevance.  Understanding how incentive salience contributes to the development of dysfunctional neural pathways in the reward circuit can help us understand how addictions develop. Perhaps more interestingly, this knowledge can also be used in enhancing our patients  process of recovery.  Simple, practical behavioral interventions (such as encouraging patients to develop new ways of experiencing contentment in recovery) can lead to the development of new, competitive neural pathways competing with the addictive pathways.  These interventions can easily be integrated into our treatment plan by following recovery capitol.