Dr. C. Thomas Brophy said it was firsthand experiences that set him on a “determined path toward helping people” who are battling addiction.

Even before addiction medicine became a board-certified specialty, Brophy — who is the medical director for the Ellen O’Brien Gaiser Center in Butler — said he had been working in the field for several years.

“The reason being is because I grew up with a brother who struggled with addiction, so I grew up with it in our family and our household,” Brophy said. “And I always thought he and I were just wired differently, but I ended up running into my own little issues and eye-opening experiences with alcohol.”

Brophy recalled leaving his 16-year-old brother at St. Francis Hospital in downtown Pittsburgh. Brophy was 6 at the time.

“He wasn’t coming home, and I remember asking my parents a lot of questions about that and not really understanding it at the time.”

His brother’s addiction turned to opioids in his late 30s, according to Brophy, just as Brophy began his academic career.

“So, I also got to see how opioids specifically completely changed a person, and around that time I was studying neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh,” he said. “And I started paying particular attention to the neuroscience of addiction.”

At the time, Brophy said neuroscience of addiction was a developing field.

“I mean, we’re talking 25 years ago, we had an understanding of what parts of the brain are involved in addiction, but we didn’t understand it the way we do now,” he said. “With neuroplasticity and how those changes are continuing while the person is actively using.”

After completing his bachelor’s degree, Brophy said he entered medical school planning to study either neurosurgery or neurology.

“But that changed once I got into medical school and I started realizing some of the limitations of those specialties,” he said. “And I just really enjoyed emergency medicine, which has more to do with my need for adrenaline and if anything, like my addiction, thrill-seeking.”

Brophy said these themes of addiction followed him through and directed his medical studies in emergency medicine.

“I just had this fascination with how some people with addictive tendencies, and those who are predisposed genetically for addiction, are able to navigate that and basically become addicted to things that propel them forward,” he said.

He said that not all addictions have to have a destructive element, such as addictions to learning or reading, but that true “addict” addiction always manifests in a destructive element.

“Over time I’ve seen the evolution of our understanding of addiction too,” Brophy said. “It just all sort of comes together for me, because it’s all things that I’ve been interested in, but also things that I grew up witnessing and experiencing.”

By 2014 — when he was getting “serious about addiction treatment” in his career — Brophy said his brother was on the path to sobriety.

“He’s gone about 10 years clean now,” he said.

During those 10 years, Brophy began to blaze his own path as an addiction doctor.

“I opened an outpatient treatment center in Lyndora called Trilogy Wellness at the beginning of 2019,” he said. “And it was then that I started working with the Gaiser Center as a part-time medical director.”

As part of his responsibilities, Brophy said he would assist the center one day a week with establishing systems, protocols and algorithms to medically manage their patients.

“At the time, they didn’t have any medical team whatsoever,” Brophy said.

It was in September 2021 that Brophy said he began to work full-time with the addiction center, after the introduction of Joe Mahoney as executive director.

His responsibilities, he said, vary from day to day.

“I go to their inpatient campus, I go to their outpatient campus, but then they also have me providing medical support for other facilities like Ark Manor (Personal Care Home),” Brophy said.

In addition to his medical duties, he said he also regularly participates in outreach and education for the center.

He recalled educating a roomful of superintendents from the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV last year. He was tasked with talking about “addiction and how it affects the brain.”

Brophy said he also recently held seminars for the Pennsylvania Prison Wardens Association as well as a variety of schools throughout the region.

“Whether I’m doing education or podcasts or radio interviews, or I’m doing direct patient care — like giving injections and evaluating patients — I do all of that,” he said. “It just sort of depends on the day.”

More recently, he was the speaker during second annual “Discover Recovery” community forum hosted by the Gaiser Center and Butler County Community College at the college's Founder's Hall on Jan. 8.

His speaking engagements often highlight how methods of care have changed drastically for the addiction center.

“Treatment across the board has changed over the past couple of years in a big way,” Brophy said. “Part of that is because the state of Pennsylvania now requires all facilities, including the jails and the inpatient rehab facilities, to provide MAT.”

Medication Assisted Treatment, or MAT, combines behavioral therapy and counseling with addiction treatment medication including methadone, Suboxone and Vivitrol.

“So we’ve had to be very careful about how we structure that, because, the truth is, MAT is right for certain individuals, but for other individuals it could be an absolute disaster,” Brophy said. “We have to screen people the correct way.”

On top of the complicating logistics of providing care during the pandemic over the past few years, Brophy said the addition of MAT to the Gaiser Center’s care was daunting in its own right — especially while keeping the service in touch with the center’s “personality.”

“We had to do so in a way that was in line with their mission and values, but that also is going to provide the correct level of support for patients,” he said. “And I think we’ve done a good job with that.”