Brett T. Litz, PhD

Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Litz is a clinical psychologist and Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychological and Brain Sciences and is also the Director of the Mental Health Core of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiological Research and Information Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System. Dr. Litz is internationally recognized as an expert on PTSD, military trauma, and the early intervention and treatment of trauma, traumatic loss, and moral injury.

Dr. Litz recent work entails the development and validation of a new measure of moral injury as a multidimensional outcome (the Moral Injury Outcome Scale; a public domain scale available by emailing Dr. Litz) and conducing a VA funded multisite clinical trial testing an expanded version of Adaptive Disclosure on Veterans with PTSD. Adaptive Disclosure is a flexible multidimensional psychotherapy that employs different strategies to target threat-based, loss-related, and moral injury-related trauma (http://www.guilford.com/books/Adaptive-Disclosure/Litz-Lebowitz-Gray-Nash/9781462523290) . Dr. Litz has over 370 peer reviewed publications is a fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the American Psychopathological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.

Publications

  • Published 4/24/2025

    Straud CL, Buccellato KH, Vacek S, Hale WJ, Baker MT, Isler WC, Litz BT, McNally RJ, Peterson AL. The General Military Support Scale: An examination of factor structure and psychological correlates. Mil Psychol. 2025 Apr 24; 1-11. PMID: 40272399.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/16/2025

    Fredman SJ, Gamaldo AA, Jenkins AIC, Le Y, Mogle JA, Monson CM, Gamaldo CE, Thorpe RJ, Hall-Clark BN, Blount TH, Fina BA, Buxton OM, Engeland CG, Rhoades GK, Stanley SM, Macdonald A, Dondanville KA, Taylor DJ, Pruiksma KE, Litz BT, Young-McCaughan S, Yarvis JS, Keane TM, Peterson AL. An Initial Examination of Couple Therapy for PTSD Outcomes Among Black/African American Adults: Findings from an Uncontrolled Trial with Military Dyads. Behav Sci (Basel). 2025 Apr 16; 15(4). PMID: 40282158.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/12/2025

    Darnell BC, Vannini MBN, Morgan-López A, Brown SE, Grunthal B, Hale WJ, Young-McCaughan S, Fox PT, McGeary DD, Resick PA, Sloan DM, Taylor DJ, Schobitz RP, Schrader CC, Yarvis JS, Keane TM, Peterson AL, Litz BT. Psychometric Evaluation of the Weekly Version of the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. Assessment. 2025 Mar 12; 10731911251321929. PMID: 40077953.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/5/2025

    Hass NC, Wachen JS, Straud CL, Checko E, McGeary DD, McGeary CA, Mintz J, Litz BT, Young-McCaughan S, Yarvis JS, Peterson AL, Resick PA. Changes in pain and related health outcomes after cognitive processing therapy in an active duty military sample. J Trauma Stress. 2025 Mar 05. PMID: 40045687.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/29/2025

    Litz BT, Walker HE. Moral Injury: An Overview of Conceptual, Definitional, Assessment, and Treatment Issues. Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 2025 May; 21(1):251-277. PMID: 39879547.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 352 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Websites

Education

  • State University of New York at Binghamton, PhD
  • State University of New York at Binghamton, MA
  • Stony Brook University, BA

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