David B Abrams
David Abrams
Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences
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Professional overview
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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.
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Education
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BSc (Hons), Psychology and Computer Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South AfricaMS, Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJPhD, Clinical Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJPostdoctoral Fellow, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI
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Honors and awards
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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)
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Areas of research and study
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Behavioral ScienceChronic DiseasesEvaluationsImplementation and Impact of Public Health RegulationsImplementation sciencePopulation HealthPublic Health PedagogyPublic Health SystemsResearch DesignSystems IntegrationSystems InterventionsTobacco ControlTranslational science
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Publications
Publications
The effects of cue exposure on reaction time in male alcoholics
Failed retrieving data.Women and smoking cessation: Current status and future directions
Failed retrieving data.Alcohol cue reactivity : Effects of detoxification and extended exposure
Failed retrieving data.Cognitive-behavioral coping skills program for alcoholics : Monograph No. 3. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Failed retrieving data.Cue Exposure With Coping Skills Treatment for Male Alcoholics : A Preliminary Investigation
Failed retrieving data.Development of a behavior analytically derived alcohol-specific role-play assessment instrument
Failed retrieving data.Smoking control at the workplace : current status and emerging issues.
Failed retrieving data.Treatment issues: Towards a stepped care model
Failed retrieving data.A cocaine high-risk situations questionnaire : Development and psychometric properties
Failed retrieving data.Assessing elements of women's decisions about mammography.
Failed retrieving data.Assessment, classification, and treatment of obesity: A behavioral medicine perspective
Failed retrieving data.Attendance and outcome in a work site weight control program : Processes and stages of change as process and predictor variables
Failed retrieving data.Commentary on stages of change and decisional balance for twelve problem behaviors.
Failed retrieving data.Commentary on strong and weak principles for progressing from precontemplation into action based on 12 problem behaviors
Failed retrieving data.Conceptual models to integrate individual and public health interventions: The example of the workplace
Failed retrieving data.Cue elicited urge to drink and salivation in alcoholics : Relationship to individual differences
Failed retrieving data.Current treatment of obesity : a behavioral medicine perspective.
Failed retrieving data.Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in naturalistic settings
Failed retrieving data.Increased Saliva Cotinine Concentrations in Smokers During Rapid Weight Loss
Failed retrieving data.Motivational characteristics of smokers at the workplace : A public health challenge
Failed retrieving data.Nicotine dependence: Assessment and management
Failed retrieving data.Prevention and treatment of alcohol-related problems : Research opportunities. Committee to identify research opportunities in the prevention and treatment of alcohol-related problems
Failed retrieving data.Restrictive workplace smoking policies : Impact on nonsmokers’ tobacco exposure
Failed retrieving data.Smokers' reactions to interpersonal interaction and presentation of smoking cues
Failed retrieving data.Smoking and treatment outcome for alcoholics : Effects on coping skills, urge to drink, and drinking rates
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