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

Self-monitoring and reactivity in the modification of cigarette smoking

Abrams, D., Abrams, D. B., & Wilson, G. T. (n.d.).

Publication year

1979

Journal title

Journal of consulting and clinical psychology

Volume

47

Issue

2

Page(s)

243-251

10.1037/0022-006X.47.2.243

Abstract

Abstract

The reactive effects of self-monitoring (SM) as a function of varying the specific nature of the target behavior and the perceived negative consequences of the behavior were investigated with 40 20-55 yr old chronic smokers (at least 15 cigarettes/day for 2 yrs). Ss were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions from stratified blocks based on initial smoking rates: (a) SM nicotine plus health hazard information; (b) SM nicotine with no health hazard information; (c) SM cigarettes plus health information; and (d) SM cigarettes with no health information. Ss self-monitored during a 4-wk nondemand phase and during a 4-wk treatment phase or until they quit smoking. The 2 nicotine SM groups showed greater reactivity. There were no differences among groups as a function of exposure to health hazard information. Results are discussed in relation to models of self-control and previous investigations of other parameters of reactive SM. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

The nonverbal communication of social anxiety: A validation of the impact of beliefs on behavior.

Abrams, D., Woolfolk, A., Abrams, L., Abrams, D. S., & Wilson, G. (n.d.).

Publication year

1979

Journal title

Journal of Environmental Science and Nonverbal Behavior

Volume

3

Page(s)

205-218

Abstract

Abstract

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Effects of alcohol on sexual arousal in male alcoholics

Abrams, D., Wilson, G. T., Lawson, D. M., & Abrams, D. B. (n.d.).

Publication year

1978

Journal title

Journal of abnormal psychology

Volume

87

Issue

6

Page(s)

609-616

10.1037/0021-843X.87.6.609

Abstract

Abstract

During successive daily sessions, each of 8 29-44 yr old chronic male alcoholics received, in counterbalanced order, doses of beverage alcohol (.08, .4, .8, and 1.2 g/kg) prior to viewing nonerotic and erotic films. Measures of penile tumescence obtained by means of a penile plethysmograph showed a significant negative linear effect of increasing alcohol doses during the heterosexual and homosexual films. Ss' expectations about the effect of alcohol on sexual arousal and behavior were discrepant with these physiological findings. Consistently, Ss reported that alcohol would have no effect on their sexual arousal or would increase it. Results are discussed with reference to other studies, and it is concluded that penile tumescence is a convenient, reliable, and discriminating measure of male sexual arousal. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Effects of alcohol on social anxiety and physiological arousal : Cognitive versus pharmacological processes

Abrams, D., Wilson, G. T., & Abrams, D. S. (n.d.).

Publication year

1977

Journal title

Cognitive Therapy and Research

Volume

1

Issue

3

Page(s)

195-210

10.1007/BF01186793

Abstract

Abstract

Thirty-two male social drinkers were randomly assigned to one of two expectancy conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they consumed contained either vodka and tonic or tonic only. For half of the subjects in each expectancy condition, the beverage actually contained vodka; the others drank only tonic. After their drinks, subjects' heart rates were monitored during a brief social interaction with a female confederate. Self-report and questionnaire measures of social anxiety were taken before and after the interaction. Subjects who believed that they had consumed alcohol showed significantly less increase in heart rate than those who believed that they consumed tonic only, regardless of the actual content of their drinks. There was no effect of alcohol per se. The theoretical implications of these results are briefly discussed.