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

Increasing the impact of nicotine dependence treatment: Conceptual and practical considerations in a stepped care plus treatment-matching approach

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Naltrexone's effect on cue-elicited craving among alcoholics in treatment

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Nicotine addiction : paradigms for research in the 21st century

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The efficacy of exercise as an aid for smoking cessation in women : A randomized controlled trial

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The working healthy project : A worksite health-promotion trial targeting physical activity, diet, and smoking

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Transdisciplinary paradigms for tobacco prevention research

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Adherence to treatment for nicotine dependence

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Characteristics of patients adhering to a hospital's no-smoking policy

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Durability, dissemination, and institutionalization of worksite tobacco control programs : Results from the working well trial

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Evaluation of motivationally tailored vs. Standard self-help physical activity interventions at the workplace

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Exercise, smoking cessation, and short-term changes in serum lipids in women : A preliminary investigation

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Individual differences in cue reactivity among smokers trying to quit : Effects of gender and cue type

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Scripted imagery manipulations and smoking cue reactivity in a clinical sample of self-quitters

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Brief coping skills treatment for cocaine abuse : Substance use outcomes at three months

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Effects of alcohol cues on smoking urges and topography among alcoholic men

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Health behavior and health education: The past, present, and future

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Rationale, design, and baseline data for Commit to Quit : An exercise efficacy trial for smoking cessation among women

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Withdrawal dynamics and smoking relapse : Implications for theory, assessment, and intervention

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Cognitive-behavioral mediators of changing multiple behaviors : Smoking and a sedentary lifestyle

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Development of major depressive disorder during smoking-cessation treatment

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Integrating individual and public health perspectives for treatment of tobacco dependence under managed health care : A combined stepped-care and matching model

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Interventions for alcoholics who smoke

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Transdermal clonidine for smoking cessation : A double-blind randomized dose-response study

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Treating nicotine dependence: Pharmacologic and behavioral approaches

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Use of a 24-hour recall diary to assess exposure to environmental tobacco smoke

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