Research Interests:
As director of Moffitt Cancer Center's Tobacco Research & Intervention Program (TRIP), Dr. Brandon has several active lines of research, most of which share a focus on tobacco relapse and relapse prevention. One line involves development and evaluation of low-cost relapse-prevention interventions for smokers who have already quit smoking. Only about 5% of self-quitting smokers are successful at achieving long-term cessation after a given quitting attempt. Dr. Brandon and his colleagues have developed a simple yet innovative 'self-help' relapse-prevention intervention for these self-quitters. Results of two clinical trials indicate that a series of booklets delivered by mail significantly reduced relapse rate among recent quitters and is highly cost-effective. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is now disseminating this program via two web sites: cancercontrolplanet.cancer.gov and www.smokefree.gov.
This same line of research also led to two R01 grants from NCI. The first was a dismantling study to identify the prepotent components of the intervention. Results indicate that the content of the booklets, rather than the repeated contact of the multiple booklets, was responsible for the effect. The second R01 is an ongoing project to adapt the intervention for a special subpopulation of (ex)smokers who are particularly prone to smoking relapse: pregnant and postpartum women. Nearly all women who quit smoking during pregnancy relapse after delivery, and previous relapse-prevention efforts have failed with this population.
Another line of research involves translating basic learning theory and research, often limited to animal models, to potential human interventions for drug abuse. One such model is Eisenberg's learned industriousness theory, a behavioral theory of motivation based upon one's history of reinforcement for effortful behaviors. Dr. Brandon and his colleagues have shown that smokers, as predicted by extrapolations from this model, demonstrate less persistence than nonsmokers on two frustrating behavioral tasks, and that task persistence can prospectively predict success (through a 2-year follow-up period) at smoking cessation. In another ongoing study, funded by the American Cancer Society-National, Dr. Brandon is testing the translation of basic animal research on Pavlovian extinction into a ?cue-exposure? treatment for nicotine dependence. Contemporary learning research indicates that extinction does not generalize well across contexts unless a cue from the extinction context is presented. Therefore, Dr. Brandon is testing cue exposure therapy with the presence of an extinction memory retrieval cue (a medallion) that is given to smokers as they receive exposure therapy.
Finally, Dr. Brandon's lab has been investigating unique motivators of smoking that may be important for particular subpopulations of smokers. These include the role of pain in motivating smoking among chronic pain patients, and the degree to which poor body image is a motivator to smoke among college-age women.