Glover's Smoking Research Honored

Elbert Glover, School of Public Health, was awarded the AAHB Research Laureate Medallion in March.

Elbert D. Glover, professor and chair, department of public and community health in the School of Public Health, received the Research Laureate Medallion from the American Academy of Health Behavior in March. The award was given to Glover, a nationally recognized researcher of human behavior and smoking, for "his extensive scholarly productivity that has contributed significantly to the advancement of knowledge in health behavior, education and promotion."

Newsdesk asked Glover about his research and what's he's learned about humans and smoking in his more than 30 years of research in the area.

  Why did you start studying smoking?

For my doctoral dissertation, I was attempting to alter a behavior with a subliminal perception technique, and I just happened to select smoking as the behavior I wanted to alter. I had to learn a great deal about smoking, so much so, that the American Cancer Society asked me to be their representative in the media. That began my venture into tobacco research 33 years ago.

What has been the most important thing you've learned about smoking behavior?

That when helping smokers quit, no one size fits all. There are so many individual responses (withdrawal symptoms) to quitting that you can't treat all smokers wanting to quit in the same manner. For some, quitting smoking is very easy, while for others it is much more difficult. This variability in quitting smoking has a great deal to do with the way smokers absorb, metabolize, distribute and eliminate nicotine from the body. We're discovering that acquiring the addiction is much more genetic than we ever thought. We're beginning to say, just like we do with alcoholics, once a smoker always a smoker, for we're discovering that cigarette smoking is a chronic relapsing disease. Just because you've quit for several years does not mean that you won't relapse. You've always got to be on your guard to keep from returning to smoking.

What's been the most surprising thing you've discovered about humans and health behavior?

Actually, three surprises come to mind. First, I am truly amazed that, despite all we know about health risks, the threat to health and possible death, smokers continue to rationalize their behavior. Second, that smokers are always looking for the easiest way to quit, not necessarily the best way to quit and remain quit. Third, I am amazed that smokers are very hesitant about paying for medication to assist with quitting smoking, yet are quick to pay for medication for other health related problems.

	Elbert Glover and his lab team conduct smoking cessation trials in the School of Public Health.

What research findings of yours changed your own thinking about something?

Probably the findings that influenced or changed my thinking on an issue is discovering the addictive mechanism of nicotine and the role nicotine plays in the addiction process and the quitting process.

Through the mid '70's, all the emphasis on treating smoking was by attempting to alter behavior. However, in the mid '70's we began to explore pharmacological ways to assist first with the nicotine replacement products, i.e., nicotine gum, nicotine patch, nicotine oral inhaler, nicotine nasal spray and the nicotine sublingual tablet. Thereafter, came Zyban and more recently Chantix, all of which have been approved for use for helping smokers with quitting. We are currently testing a vaccine and a Monoamine Oxidase B Inhibitor, ALL of which are focusing on some aspect of nicotine. So realizing that addiction is polygenetic and not unitary changed the way I view addiction, and how I now go about attacking the problem.

Has anything in your research been a frustration or disappointment?

Probably my biggest disappointment was a drug that we tested to help smokers quit named rimonabant. I viewed it as an excellent drug to help smokers quit but, to get a drug approved by the FDA, we needed to submit2 identical trials that showed that it worked. The trial in the U.S. worked; however, the one in Europe did not.Therefore, rimonabant was not approved in the U.S to assist smokers with quitting. Today, I still believe that it works well to assist smokers with quitting.

When you look back on your research, what is the most important contribution you hope to have made?

To have been a player in what the National Institutes of Medicine in 2007 called one of the 10 greatest achievements in public health in the 20th century...the downward trend in tobacco use since 1964. To know that I was a part of one of the greatest achievements in public health in the 20th century, seems unfathomable. It isn't often that we get the opportunity to work really hard at something we really enjoy, and I have been very fortunate to have had that opportunity, I find tobacco research no less exciting today than when I began 33 years ago.

More on Glover research at University of Maryland

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