David B Abrams

Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Professional overview

Dr. David Abrams' career focuses on systems and social learning frameworks to inform population health enhancement. He has experience in testing theory, research design, measuring mechanisms of behavior change and outcome, and evaluating clinical trials (behavioral and pharmacological). His interests span topics from basic bio-behavioral mechanisms and clinical treatments to policy across risk factors and behaviors (e.g. tobacco/nicotine; alcohol, obesity, co-morbidity of medical and mental health), disease states (cancer; cardiovascular; HIV-AIDS), levels (biological, individual, organizational, worksite, community, global, and internet based), populations and disparities. His interests converge in the domain of implementation science to cost-efficiently inform evidence-based public health practice and policymaking.

Through transdisciplinary and translational research strategies, Dr. Abrams provides scientific leadership in tobacco control. His current focus is in strengthening global and United States tobacco and nicotine management strategies. Deaths of 1 billion smokers are estimated by 2100 caused overwhelmingly by use of combustible (smoked) tobacco products, not nicotine. Harm minimization is a key overarching systems strategy to speed the net public health benefit of emergent disruptive technologies for cleaner nicotine delivery. The goal is more rapid elimination of preventable deaths, disease burdens, and the widening gap in health disparities driven disproportionately by disparities in smoking.

Dr. Abrams was a professor and founding director of the Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine at Brown University Medical School. He then directed the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Until 2017, he was Professor of Health Behavior and Society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the founding Executive Director of the Schroeder National Institute of Tobacco Research and Policy Studies at Truth Initiative (formerly the American Legacy Foundation).

Dr. Abrams has published over 250 peer reviewed scholarly articles and been a Principal Investigator on numerous NIH grants. He is lead author of The Tobacco Dependence Treatment Handbook: A Guide to Best Practices. He has served on expert panels at NIH and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on Obesity, Alcohol Misuse and Ending the Tobacco Problem: A Blueprint for the Nation. He has also served on the Board of Scientific Advisors of the National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI) and was President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

For a complete list of Dr. Abrams' published work, click here.

Education

BSc (Hons), Psychology and Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

MS, Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

PhD, Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

Postdoctoral Fellow, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI

Honors and awards

Research Laureate Award, American Academy of Health Behavior (2014)

Joseph W. Cullen Memorial Award for Tobacco Research, American Society for Preventive Oncology (2008)

Distinguished Alumni Award: Rutgers University, The Graduate School, New Brunswick, NJ (2007)

The Musiker-Miranda Distinguished Service Award, American Psychological Association (2006)

Distinguished Service Award, Society of Behavioral Medicine (2006)

Outstanding Research Mentor Award, Society of Behavioral Medicine (2006)

Book of the Year Award: Tobacco Dependence Treatment Handbook. American Journal of Nursing (2005)

Distinguished Scientist Award, Society of Behavioral Medicine (1998)

Areas of research and study

Behavioral Science

Chronic Diseases

Evaluations

Implementation and Impact of Public Health Regulations

Implementation science

Population Health

Public Health Pedagogy

Public Health Systems

Research Design

Systems Integration

Systems Interventions

Tobacco Control

Translational science

Publications

Publications

Multicenter trial of fluoxetine as an adjunct to behavioral smoking cessation treatment

Negative mood, depressive symptoms, and major depression after smoking cessation treatment in smokers with a history of major depressive disorder

Patterns of change in depressive symptoms during smoking cessation: Who's at risk for relapse?

Response to social stress, urge to smoke, and smoking cessation

Smoking cessation: Progress, priorities, and prospectus

Treating alcohol dependence: A coping skills training guide

A content analysis of smoking craving

Cognitive Avoidance as a Method of Coping with a Provocative Smoking Cue: The Moderating Effect of Nicotine Dependence

Cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression in smoking cessation

Cue exposure with coping skills training and communication skills training for alcohol dependence: 6- and 12-month outcomes

Depression in chronic medical illness: The case of coronary heart disease

Does completing a craving questionnaire promote increased smoking craving? An experimental investigation

Effect of different cue stimulus delivery channels on craving reactivity: Comparing in vivo and video cues in regular cigarette smokers

How Do Adolescents Process Smoking and Antismoking Advertisements? A Social Cognitive Analysis with Implications for Understanding Smoking Initiation

Individual differences in responses to the first cigarette following overnight abstinence in regular smokers

Naltrexone and cue exposure with coping and communication skills training for alcoholics: Treatment process and 1-year outcomes

Smoking-cessation counseling in the home: Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of home healthcare nurses

Symptoms of depression and survival experience among three samples of smokers trying to quit

Transdisciplinary research to improve brief interventions for addictive behaviors

Will healthcare take tobacco addiction seriously? Using policy to drive practice.

An idiographic approach to understanding personality structure and individual differences among smokers

Brief coping skills treatment for cocaine abuse: 12-month substance use outcomes

Comorbidity, smoking behavior and treatment outcome

Current models of nicotine dependence: What is known and what is needed to advance understanding of tobacco etiology among youth

Does the five factor model of personality apply to smokers? A preliminary investigation