I am an experimental psychologist by training, with experience in young adult and adolescent tobacco use and a particular focus on tobacco regulatory science. I am passionate about reducing youth and young adult smoking. As most smokers who start by young adulthood and continue to smoke are eventually killed by their smoking, and quitting smoking in young adulthood translates to dramatic benefits in terms of life expectancy, increasing smoking cessation in this age group is of critical importance for reducing overall health burden from tobacco use across the lifespan. One of the most impactful tools we have to reduce use and harm are tobacco control policies, including the potentially transformative authority of the FDA to enact a nicotine reduction standard (NRS) that would affect all commercially available cigarettes. I have dedicated the last 10 years to studying how an NRS may affect youth and young adults, via several grants including a K01 I was awarded in 2014. The work that has resulted from program of research, including the first clinical trial of very low nicotine content cigarettes in 15-20 year olds, have greatly increased the evidence base to suggest that an NRS would be likely to reduce the abuse liability of cigarettes for youth and also result in reduced smoking. In addition to my work with younger adolescents (mean age ~18), I have also studied the potential effects of an NRS on young adults who smoke aged (18-24), and shown that this policy would work to reduce smoking among this group as well. I am also very interested in alternative tobacco product use, such as e-cigarettes and cigarillos. Given my population focus, understanding alternative tobacco product use is essential. In a continuation of my line of research begun with my K01, I received an R01 investigating the potential for nicotine reduction to affect alternative tobacco use behavior in addition to smoking in 15-20 year old smokers who also use other tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and cigarillos both in the lab using experimental methods and in the field (R01 DA047356). In my work, I use a behavioral economic framework to understand substance use, and work to apply that framewrok to tobacco regulatory science. To that end, I was awarded an R03 to develop a behavioral economic measure of the reinforcing efficacy of e-cigarettes (R03DA041820, PI Cassidy). My work in behavioral economics as a tool for tobacco regulatory science is a primary focus of my career. I have also developed an interest in studying co-use of cannabis and tobacco, which is common in this population; I completed a pilot grant that developed a behavioral economic task for studying dual use of cannabis and tobacco in youth. Overall, my research program focuses on the areas of work that should be prioritized in order to move the needle on tobacco use in youth.
| Cassidy RN. "Commentary on Hartmann-Boyce et al.: Understanding the harms of dual use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes requires more precise data." Addiction, vol. 118, no. 3, 2023, pp. 546-547. |
| Bello MS, Pang RD, Colby SM, Cassidy RN, Zvolensky M, Langdon KJ. "Interactive effects of financial strain and distress tolerance on prequit tobacco withdrawal symptoms in smokers preparing to initiate a quit attempt." Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 31, no. 4, 2023, pp. 805-816. |
| Denlinger-Apte RL, Cassidy RN, Donny EC, Godin J, Hatsukami DK, Strahley AE, Wiseman KD, Colby SM, Tidey JW. "Qualitative reactions to a low nicotine product standard for cigarettes from adolescents and young adults living in the United States who smoke." Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 32, 2023, pp. 102163. |
| Denlinger-Apte RL, Strahley AE, Lockhart DE, Wiseman KD, Cassidy RN, Davis DR, O'Connor RJ, Tidey JW. "Reactions to using other nicotine and tobacco products instead of menthol cigarettes: A qualitative study of people who smoke menthol cigarettes in the United States." Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 34, 2023, pp. 102228. |
| DeAtley T, Harrison A, Cassidy R, Kuo C, Higgins ST, Tidey JW. "Subjective experiences, contexts, and risk perceptions of very low nicotine content cigarettes and electronic cigarettes among people with depression and anxiety disorders who smoke." Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 244, 2023, pp. 109767. |
| Cassidy RN, Tidey JW, Jackson KM, Cioe PA, Murphy SE, Krishnan-Sarin S, Hatsukami D, Colby SM. "The Impact of Reducing Nicotine Content on Adolescent Cigarette Smoking and Nicotine Exposure: Results From a Randomized Controlled Trial." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 25, no. 5, 2023, pp. 918-927. |
| Peasley-Miklus C, Klemperer EM, Hughes JR, Villanti AC, Krishnan-Sarin S, DeSarno MJ, Mosca LA, Su A, Cassidy RN, Feinstein MJP. "The interactive effects of JUUL flavor and nicotine concentration on addiction potential." Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 31, no. 2, 2023, pp. 336-342. |
| Snell LM, Colby SM, DeAtley T, Cassidy R, Tidey JW. "Associations Between Nicotine Knowledge and Smoking Cessation Behaviors Among US Adults Who Smoke." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 24, no. 6, 2022, pp. 855-863. |
| DeAtley TE, Cassidy R, Snell ML, Colby SM, Tidey JW. "Effects of Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarette use on Cigarette Reinforcement among Smokers with Serious Mental Illness." Addictive Behaviors, vol. 133, 2022, pp. 107376. |
| Tidey JW, Snell LM, Colby SM, Cassidy RN, Denlinger-Apte RL. "Effects of very low nicotine content cigarettes on smoking across vulnerable populations." Preventive Medicine, vol. 165, no. Pt B, 2022, pp. 107099. |
| Cohn AM, Cassidy R, Denlinger-Apte R, Donny E, Villanti AC, Hatsukami D, Dunn D, Wyatt R, Niznik T, Cohen-Davidyan T, Smith M, Ehlke SJ. "Impact of a reduced nicotine standard on young adult appeal for menthol and non-menthol cigarettes." BMJ Open, vol. 12, no. 11, 2022, pp. e067694. |
| Carroll DM, Lindgren BR, Dermody SS, Denlinger-Apte R, Egbert A, Cassidy RN, Smith TT, Pacek LR, Allen AM, Tidey JW, Parks MJ, Koopmeiners JS, Donny EC, Hatsukami DK. "Impact of nicotine reduction in cigarettes on smoking behavior and exposure: Are there differences by race/ethnicity, educational attainment, or gender?." Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 225, 2021, pp. 108756. |
| Denlinger-Apte, Rachel L., Cassidy, Rachel N., Carey, Kate B., Kahler, Christopher W., Bickel, Warren K., O’Connor, Richard, Thussu, Shreeya, Tidey, Jennifer W. "The impact of menthol flavoring in combusted tobacco on alternative product purchasing: A pilot study using the Experimental Tobacco Marketplace." Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 218, 2021, pp. 108390. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N., Aston, Elizabeth R., Tidey, Jennifer W., Colby, Suzanne M. "Behavioral economic demand and delay discounting are differentially associated with cigarette dependence and use in adolescents." Addictive Behaviors, vol. 103, 2020, pp. 106225. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N, Tidey, Jennifer W, Colby, Suzanne M. "Exclusive E-Cigarette Users Report Lower Levels of Respiratory Symptoms Relative to Dual E-Cigarette and Cigarette Users." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 22, no. Supplement_1, 2020, pp. S54-S60. |
| Aston ER, Cassidy RN. "Behavioral economic demand assessments in the addictions." Current Opinion in Psychology, vol. 30, 2019, pp. 42-47. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N., Miller, Mollie E., Tidey, Jennifer W., Diguiseppi, Graham, Denlinger-Apte, Rachel, Colby, Suzanne M. "The Impact of Nicotine Dose on the Reinforcing Value of Cigarettes in Adolescents." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 5, no. 2, 2019, pp. 105-114. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N., Colby, Suzanne M., Tidey, Jennifer W., Jackson, Kristina M., Cioe, Patricia A., Krishnan-Sarin, Suchitra, Hatsukami, Dorothy. "Adolescent smokers' response to reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes: Acute effects on withdrawal symptoms and subjective evaluations." Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 188, 2018, pp. 153-160. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N, Tidey, Jennifer W, Cao, Qing, Colby, Suzanne M, McClernon, Francis J, Koopmeiners, Joseph S, Hatsukami, Dorothy, Donny, Eric C. "Age Moderates Smokers' Subjective Response to Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 21, no. 7, 2018, pp. 962-969. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N., Jackson, Kristina M., Rohsenow, Damaris J., Tidey, Jennifer W., Tevyaw, Tracy O'.L., Barnett, Nancy P., Monti, Peter M., Miller, Mollie E., Colby, Suzanne M. "Contingency management for college student smokers: The role of drinking as a moderator and mediator of smoking abstinence during treatment." Addictive Behaviors, vol. 80, 2018, pp. 95-101. |
| Cassidy RN, Meisel MK, DiGuiseppi G, Balestrieri S, Barnett NP. "Initiation of vaporizing cannabis: Individual and social network predictors in a longitudinal study of young adults." Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 188, 2018, pp. 334-340. |
| Tidey JW, Pacek LR, Koopmeiners JS, Vandrey R, Nardone N, Drobes DJ, Benowitz NL, Dermody SS, Lemieux A, Denlinger RL, Cassidy R, al'Absi M, Hatsukami DK, Donny EC. "Effects of 6-Week Use of Reduced-Nicotine Content Cigarettes in Smokers With and Without Elevated Depressive Symptoms." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 19, no. 1, 2017, pp. 59-67. |
| Cassidy RN, Tidey JW, Colby SM, Long V, Higgins ST. "Initial Development of an E-cigarette Purchase Task: A Mixed Methods Study." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 3, no. 2, 2017, pp. 139-150. |
| Tidey JW, Cassidy RN, Miller ME, Smith TT. "Behavioral Economic Laboratory Research in Tobacco Regulatory Science." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 2, no. 4, 2016, pp. 440-451. |
| Smith, Tracy T., Cassidy, Rachel N., Tidey, Jennifer W., Luo, Xianghua, Le, Chap T., Hatsukami, Dorothy K., Donny, Eric C. "Impact of smoking reduced nicotine content cigarettes on sensitivity to cigarette price: further results from a multi-site clinical trial." Addiction, vol. 112, no. 2, 2016, pp. 349-359. |
| Martin, Rosemarie A., Cassidy, Rachel N., Murphy, Cara M., Rohsenow, Damaris J. "Barriers to Quitting Smoking Among Substance Dependent Patients Predict Smoking Cessation Treatment Outcome." Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, vol. 64, 2015, pp. 7-12. |
| Cassidy, Rachel N., Tidey, Jennifer W., Kahler, Christopher W., Wray, Tyler B., Colby, Suzanne M. "Increasing the Value of an Alternative Monetary Reinforcer Reduces Cigarette Choice in Adolescents." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, vol. 17, no. 12, 2015, pp. 1449-1455. |
| Tidey JW, Cassidy RN, Miller ME. "Smoking Topography Characteristics of Very Low Nicotine Content Cigarettes, With and Without Nicotine Replacement, in Smokers With Schizophrenia and Controls." Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2015. |
| Cassidy RN, Roberts ME, Colby SM. "Validation of a Respiratory Symptom Questionnaire in Adolescent Smokers." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 2015, pp. 121-128. |
| Cassidy RN, Roberts ME, Colby SM. "Validation of a Respiratory Symptom Questionnaire in Adolescent Smokers." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 2015, pp. 121-128. |
| Cassidy RN, Roberts ME, & Colby SM. "Validation of a Respiratory Symptom Questionnaire in Adolescent Smokers." Tobacco Regulatory Science, 2015. |
| Cassidy RN, Roberts ME, Colby SM. "Validation of a Respiratory Symptom Questionnaire in Adolescent Smokers." Tobacco Regulatory Science, vol. 1, no. 2, 2015, pp. 121-128. |
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Cassidy RN & Kangas BD.
"Impulsive Students Participate Later: Delay Discounting
in a Research Subject Pool." Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, vol. 30, 2014, pp. 1-5.
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| Cassidy RN, Dallery J. "Quantifying nicotine's value-enhancement effect using a behavioral economic approach." Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, vol. 102, no. 3, 2014, pp. 353-62. |
| Donny, Eric C., Hatsukami, Dorothy K., Benowitz, Neal L., Sved, Alan F., Tidey, Jennifer W., Cassidy, Rachel N. "Reduced nicotine product standards for combustible tobacco: building an empirical basis for effective regulation." Preventive Medicine, vol. 68, 2014, pp. 17-22. |
| Meredith SE, Jarvis BP, Raiff BR, Rojewski AM, Kurti A, Cassidy RN, Erb P, Sy JR, Dallery J. "The ABCs of incentive-based treatment in health care: a behavior analytic framework to inform research and practice." Psychology research and behavior management, vol. 7, 2014, pp. 103-14. |
| Dallery J, Cassidy RN, Raiff BR. "Single-case experimental designs to evaluate novel technology-based health interventions." Journal of Medical Internet Research, vol. 15, no. 2, 2013, pp. e22. |
| Cassidy RN, Dallery J. "Effects of economy type and nicotine on the essential value of food in rats." Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, vol. 97, no. 2, 2012, pp. 183-202. |
| Kangas BD, Cassidy RN. "Requiem for my lovely." Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior, vol. 95, no. 2, 2011, pp. 269. |
| Kangas BD, Berry MS, Cassidy RN, Dallery J, Vaidya M, Hackenberg TD. "Concurrent performance in a three-alternative choice situation: response allocation in a Rock/Paper/Scissors game." Behavioural processes, vol. 82, no. 2, 2009, pp. 164-72. |
I am an experimental psychologist focusing on laboratory models of adolescent smoking and the behavioral economics of tobacco use. My research program centers on the field of tobacco regulatory science and supports the science base that may lead to a reduction in nicotine in all commercially available cigarettes in the U.S. Such a bold public health initiative would directly prevent cancer by shifting individuals away from combustible tobacco products and toward noncombustible products such as e-cigarettes and, ideally, towards cessation.
Research Area 1: Modeling the impact of nicotine reduction on adolescent and young adult smokers in the laboratory
The FDA is considering mandating a reduction in the level of nicotine in cigarettes, but very little work had been done on how this would affect youth. My work has focused on addressing this gap. My line of research was the first to demonstrate that nicotine reduction would not acutely increase the abuse liability of cigarettes in adolescent smokers, and would not lead to intolerable withdrawal symptoms (Cassidy et al., 2018). We also found that subjective evaluations were decreased dose-dependently, such that lower nicotine doses were rated as less satisfying and less effective at reducing craving than higher doses. Using a behavioral economic purchase task, we found that low nicotine content cigarettes were rated as significantly less reinforcing than adolescent participants’ usual brand cigarettes (Cassidy et al., 2019a). Taken together, these results suggest that acutely, adolescent smokers will obtain withdrawal relief from very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes, a model of what would be on the market in the event of a nicotien reduction policy; while at the same time, VLNC cigarettes appear to have lower abuse liability than usual brand cigarettes in this population given the reduced positive subjective and reinforcing effects. We also demonstarted that in VLNC cigarettes lead to reduced cigarettes
To model the potential long-term effects of nicotine reduction on young adults, I conducted a secondary analysis of the moderating effect of age on response to nicotine reduction in a landmark trial that asked participants to use low-nicotine cigarettes for six weeks. These data suggested that nicotine reduction may hasten the transition from combustible cigarettes more quickly in young adults relative to older adults (Cassidy et al., 2019b). This work was replicated and extended in a trial comparing gradual versus immediate reduction (Cassidy et al., 2021). I am also currently a Co-Investigator on the Center for Evaluation of Nicotine in Cigarettes grant, which is the leading Center for innovation in nicotine reduction research.
One potential challenge for a nicotine reduction policy is that the risk for addiction from reduced-nicotine content cigarettes is lower, but these products still contain carcinogens and are harmful to health. Working with a BSS graduate student colleague, Rachel Denlinger-Apte, we recently analyzed whether adolescents in my K01 study had differential perceived health risk as a function of nicotine dose (Denlinger-Apte, Cassidy et al., 2019). This work showed that nicotine reduction may lead to lower cigarette health risk perceptions in adolescent smokers, which underscored the need for the FDA to engage in nuanced public health messaging to ensure that youth do not think that these cigarettes are safer than typical cigarettes.
In September 2019, I was awarded an R01 with Dr. Suzanne Colby as MPI that will examine the potential effects of a nicotine reduction policy on youth use of both cigarettes and alternative tobacco products. This project, which recently concluded, assessed the total harm from tobacco in the context of nicotine reduction by assessing to what extent nicotine reduction leads youth to change their use of alternative tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and little cigars, and how this change in behavior may lead to changes in overall toxicant exposure. This work has the potential to be of great impact for the field, as adolescents are a priority focus for tobacco control efforts.
Research Area 2: Leveraging behavioral economics to enhance tobacco regulatory science and understanding of dual use patterns
Another area of research that I am passionate about is the role of e-cigarettes in tobacco regulatory science, and in particular the role behavioral economics can play in helping to understand these and other novel tobacco products. The initial study in this program of research was supported by a Postdoctoral Development Grant from the University of Vermont TCORS to use qualitative methods to inform the development of a behavioral economic measure for e-cigarettes, which led to a publication on the best units of measurement of e-cigarette use (Cassidy et al,. 2017;2020). This work demonstrated that the most frequently used e-cigarette purchase tasks, which ask participants how many puffs of their e- cigarette they take in a day, is not ideal; rather, the unit of purchase, either in bottles of e-liquid or Juul pods, helps participants more accurately estimate their use. The next stage of this research was funded by an R03 grant from NIDA which validated a purchase task for e- cigarettes in the laboratory, and showed that a measure based on units of purchase rather than puffs of an e-cigarette better modeled actual use behavior.
I am also
With a colleague, Dr. Elizabeth Aston, I was awarded a Research Excellence Award from CAAS to support the collection of pilot data on a novel behavioral economic task that we developed to assess concurrent marijuana and cigarette purchasing in young adults. We demonstrated that individual differences in cannabis and tobacco purchasing exist, such that, for some individuals, cannabis and tobacco act as substitutive products, while for other individuals, they may be independent of each other, or even act as complements. This work has important implications for determining the risk of unintended consequences in the context of the changing tobacco and marijuana legal landscapes.
I have been funded by the FDA's Center for Tobacco Porudcts, via NCI and NIDA.
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | PhD | University of Florida |
| Postdoctoral Fellow | 2013-2014 | Providence, Rhode Island, United States |
Research Excellence Award, Brown University, 2017
APA NIDA/NIAAA Early Career Scientist Travel Award, 2016
Loan Repayment Program, National Institutes of Health, 2014
Postdoctoral Development Award, University of Vermont Tobacco Center for Regulatory Science, 2014
Graduate Student Teaching Award, University of Florida, 2013
Behavior Analysis Research Award, University of Florida Department of Psychology, 2013
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Fellow, University of Florida, 2008 – 2012
Grinter Fellowship Awardee, University of Florida, 2008
Society for the Advances of Behavior Analysis Student Presenter Grant, Association for Behavior Analysis International, 2008, 2010
Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society Inductee, 2007
University Scholars Program Student Grant Recipient, University of Florida, 2007 – 2008
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Aston, Elizabeth | Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Cioe, Patricia | Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences |
| Colby, Suzanne | Associate Director of Applied Learning for the MPH Program, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Jackson, Kristina | Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences (Research) |
| Tidey, Jennifer | Associate Dean for Research, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Treloar Padovano, Hayley | Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
Associate Professor
Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies
| PHP 1550 - Substance Use and Vulnerability to Addiction |
| PHP 1551 - Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, & Policy |
| PHP 1610 - Tobacco, Disease and the Industry: cigs, e-cigs and more |
