Researcher profile

Christina Brezing

I am an Assistant Professor in the Division on Substance Use Disorders and a Research Scientist at RFMH who has spent the last 12 years studying medications development for substance use disorders, and specifically running clinical research trials of new treatment approaches for addiction, including opioid use disorders. I completed the Columbia NIDA T32 fellowship in 2017 and went on to obtain my first NIH grant as PI on a NIDA-funded K23 of a clinical trial utilizing a new medication in the treatment of a substance use disorder as well as serving as a co investigator on a NIDA-funded R44 collaborative study with Pear Therapeutics, Inc investigating a game-based intervention in the treatment of OUD. I currently serve as PI on a NIDA funded R21 clinical trial investigating the safety of an addiction-psychiatrist designed clinical treatment protocol for telehealth buprenorphine compared to in-person care as usual for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). I am an awardee of the Columbia Vagelos College of Physicians and Doris Duke Fund to Retain Clinician Scientists for a project evaluating clinical symptoms of androgen deficiency in men with opioid use disorder, which has provided preliminary data for this submission and resulted in a publication on the topic of hypogonadism in men with opioid use disorder (McGuirt and Brezing, 2024). I have been a PI, Co-Investigator, or study physician on over 10 different clinical treatment trials for OUD, and have over a decade of clinical care, research, and specifically clinical trials expertise for patients with OUD. As a board-certified adult and addiction psychiatrist who also clinically sees patients in the health system, I personally feel connected to this study proposal. Despite the long standing recognition that opioids suppress the HPG-axis, leading to hypogonadism, and resultant medical complications, this topic has been neglected by both the research and clinical provider communities. In specialized addiction treatment clinics and in primary care, men with opioid use disorder are rarely screened for low testosterone and the prevalence of hypogonadism in the era of high potency synthetic opioids, like fentanyl, is unknown. Despite previous cross-sectional or retrospective studies showing this is a highly common and clinically significant medical co-morbidity, hypogonadism in men with opioid use disorder has been clinically ignored and understudied. I am hoping this proposed study can begin to address this void in our knowledge and lead to changes in screening and treatment for people with opioid use disorder as well as provide valuable insight into biological factors that may be impacting opioid use disorder outcomes and retention in buprenorphine treatment. Finally, I have completed my research studies at STARS for the past 10 years and have a wonderful working relationship with the team there, including Dr. Frances Levin and Dr. John Mariani who will help oversee this proposed study’s operations at STARS while providing additional clinical input for patients enrolled in the trial ensuring a high level of safety. We will collaborate with our consulting endocrinologist, Dr. Hoang-Long Huynh who has years of experience working with men with hypogonadism from opioids, as well as our consulting statistician Tse-Hwei Choo. I have the clinical and research background to both understand the clinical research processes and regulatory guidelines, experience working with this population of patients, and the medical knowledge to interpret the findings to further expand our understanding and identification of biological consequences that may impact treatment of opioid use disorder.