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 evolution of cancer control research : An international perspective from Canada and the United States
Failed retrieving data.The Smoking Effects Questionnaire for adult populations : Development and psychometric properties
Failed retrieving data.The tobacco dependence treatment handbook: A guide to best practices
Failed retrieving data.Transdisciplinary tobacco use research
Failed retrieving data.Adolescents' reactions to the imagery displayed in smoking and antismoking advertisements
Failed retrieving data.Beauty and the beast : Results of the Rhode Island smokefree shop initiative
Failed retrieving data.Challenges to improving the impact of worksite cancer prevention programs : Comparing reach, enrollment, and attrition using active versus passive recruitment strategies
Failed retrieving data.Depressive symptoms and readiness to quit smoking among cigarette smokers in outpatient alcohol treatment
Failed retrieving data.Forging trandisciplinary bridges to meet the physical inactivity challenge in the 21st century
Failed retrieving data.Motivating parents of kids with asthma to quit smoking : The PAQS project
Failed retrieving data.Multicenter trial of fluoxetine as an adjunct to behavioral smoking cessation treatment
Failed retrieving data.Negative mood, depressive symptoms, and major depression after smoking cessation treatment in smokers with a history of major depressive disorder
Failed retrieving data.Patterns of change in depressive symptoms during smoking cessation : Who's at risk for relapse?
Failed retrieving data.Response to social stress, urge to smoke, and smoking cessation
Failed retrieving data.Smoking cessation : Progress, priorities, and prospectus
Failed retrieving data.Treating alcohol dependence: A coping skills training guide
Failed retrieving data.A content analysis of smoking craving
Failed retrieving data.Cognitive Avoidance as a Method of Coping with a Provocative Smoking Cue : The Moderating Effect of Nicotine Dependence
Failed retrieving data.Cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression in smoking cessation
Failed retrieving data.Cue exposure with coping skills training and communication skills training for alcohol dependence : 6- and 12-month outcomes
Failed retrieving data.Depression in chronic medical illness : The case of coronary heart disease
Failed retrieving data.Does completing a craving questionnaire promote increased smoking craving? An experimental investigation
Failed retrieving data.Effect of different cue stimulus delivery channels on craving reactivity : Comparing in vivo and video cues in regular cigarette smokers
Failed retrieving data.How Do Adolescents Process Smoking and Antismoking Advertisements? A Social Cognitive Analysis with Implications for Understanding Smoking Initiation
Failed retrieving data.Individual differences in responses to the first cigarette following overnight abstinence in regular smokers
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