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
Naltrexone and cue exposure with coping and communication skills training for alcoholics : Treatment process and 1-year outcomes
Failed retrieving data.Smoking-cessation counseling in the home : Attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of home healthcare nurses
Failed retrieving data.Stopping smoking : A hazard for people with a history of major depression?
Failed retrieving data.Symptoms of depression and survival experience among three samples of smokers trying to quit
Failed retrieving data.Transdisciplinary research to improve brief interventions for addictive behaviors
Failed retrieving data.Will healthcare take tobacco addiction seriously? Using policy to drive practice.
Failed retrieving data.An idiographic approach to understanding personality structure and individual differences among smokers
Failed retrieving data.Brief coping skills treatment for cocaine abuse : 12-month substance use outcomes
Failed retrieving data.Comorbidity, smoking behavior and treatment outcome
Failed retrieving data.Current models of nicotine dependence : What is known and what is needed to advance understanding of tobacco etiology among youth
Failed retrieving data.Does the five factor model of personality apply to smokers? A preliminary investigation
Failed retrieving data.Human immunodeficiency virus infection, AIDS, and smoking cessation : The time is now
Failed retrieving data.Introduction to tobacco, nicotine, and youth : The Tobacco Etiology Research Network
Failed retrieving data.Predicting increases in readiness to quit smoking : A prospective analysis using the contemplation ladder
Failed retrieving data.Smoking withdrawal dynamics in unaided quitters
Failed retrieving data.Stages of change versus addiction : A replication and extension
Failed retrieving data.The use of nicotine replacement therapy during hospitalization
Failed retrieving data.Transdisciplinary concepts and measures of craving : Commentary and future directions
Failed retrieving data.A prospective analysis of change in multiple risk factors for cancer
Failed retrieving data.Behavioral medicine strategies: Management of nicotine dependence, obesity, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation exercise
Failed retrieving data.Binge eating, body image, depression, and self-efficacy in an obese clinical population
Failed retrieving data.Challenges and future directions for tailored communication research
Failed retrieving data.Cue exposure treatment for smoking relapse prevention : A controlled clinical trial
Failed retrieving data.Do processes of change predict smoking stage movements? A prospective analysis of the transtheoretical model
Failed retrieving data.History and symptoms of depression among smokers during a self-initiated quit attempt
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