Christopher Blazes, M.D.

  • Associate Professor of Psychiatry, School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Blazes is triple board-certified in psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, and emergency medicine and is the director of the OHSU addiction psychiatry Fellowship. He 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, synthetic fentanyl analogues, buprenorphine, and the neurobiology of addiction and recovery.

He is the director of the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at OHSU.

Dr Blazes also is the creator and course director of the “Advanced Addiction Psychotherapy Curriculum” This is a monthly seminar presented live to Addiction Psychiatry fellows and faculty at programs throughout the country and then recorded and archived for future viewing. This is in collaboration with NYU and the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • M.D., 1997, University of Rochester

  • Residency

    • Emergency Medicine, Brown University, Providence, RI, 2001
    • Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, 1997

  • Fellowship

    • Addiction Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco, 1998

  • Certifications

    • American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Psychiatry)
    • American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Addiction Psychiatry)
    • American Board of Emergency Medicine

Areas of interest

  • Benzodiazepines, acute and post-acute withdrawal
  • Strategies for de-prescribing
  • The neurobiology of Addiction and Recovery
  • Residential and long term treatment facilities

Publications

Selected publications

  • Complex Persistent Benzodiazepine Dependence: When De-prescribing Goes Awry Peng, L. Meeks, T, Blazes, CK, JAMA Psychiatry May 18. 2022 PMID: 35583897
  • Blazes, C, Morrow, J. “Reconsidering the Usefulness of Adding Naloxone to Buprenorphine” - Frontiers in Psychiatry, Sept 11, 2020, DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.549272
  • The Naloxone Component of Buprenorphine/Naloxone:  Discouraging Misuse, but at What Cost? - Gregg, J, Hartley, J, Lawrence, D, Risser, A, Blazes, CK, J Addict Med. 2023, 17 (1), 7-9 PMID: 35913990
  • Joan E. Zweben, Ph.D., James L. Sorensen, Ph.D, Christopher Blazes, MD, “Discontinuing Methadone and Buprenorphine: Challenges & Strategies,  Journal of Addiction Medicine, Volume 15, Number 6, November/December 2021
  • Caring for Hospitalized Adults with Methamphetamine Use Disorder: A Proposed Clinical Roadmap: Priest, K, Balasanova, A,  Levander, X, Chan, B,  Blazes, CK,  Mahan, Brown, J, Mahoney, S,  Peng, L, Mahoney, S Lundy, T,  Englander, H. American Journal of Medicine In Press 2023 PMID 36739062
  • Successful transition from fentanyl to buprenorphine in a community-based withdrawal management setting. Hartley, J, Rieke, E, Blazes, CK, Smith, B, Gregg, J, J Addict Med. 2022 Jul 21. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001014. PMID: 35861342
  • “It wasn’t here, and now it is. It’s everywhere": Fentanyl’s Rising Presence in Oregon’s Drug Supply, Shin, S, LaForge, K, Stack, E, Pope, J. Leichtling, G, Larsen, J, Seaman, A, Hoover, D Chrisholm, L, Blazes, CK, Baker, R, Byers, M, Korthuis, T, Harm Reduction Journal, (2022). 19:76 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00659-9
  • Correlates of retention on medication for opioid use disorder among people living with HIV in Northern Vietnam: Dana Button, Ryan Cook, PhD, Caroline King, PhD, MPHc, Khuyen Thi Tong, MA, Lynn Kunkelb, Gavin Bart, MD PhD, Dinh Thanh Thuy, MPHd, Diep Bich Nguyen, MDd, Christopher K. Blazes, MD, Le Minh Giang, PhD, P. Todd Korthuis, MD MPH. Int. Jou. Drug Policy Oct 14, 2021.
  • Tyler Hill Yun Jiang Christopher Friese, Lynae Darbes, Christopher K Blazes, Xingyu Zhang, Analysis of Emergency Department Visits for all reasons by Adults with depression in the United States, BMC Emergency Medicine, 22 June 2020.
  • GBD 2016 Neurology Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of neurological disorders, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurol. 2019 May;18(5):459-480.

Publications