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 a new social-functional theory of moral injury (Litz, B. T., & Walker, H. E. (2025). Moral Injury: An Overview of Conceptual, Definitional, Assessment, and Treatment Issues. Annual review of clinical psychology, 21(1), 251–277), 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), conducing a VA funded population study of the prevalence and functional impact of moral injury in US Veterans (Litz, B. T., Walker, H. E., Pietrzak, R. H., & Rusowicz-Orazem, L. (2025). The prevalence of moral distress and moral injury among U.S. veterans. Journal of psychiatric research, 189, 435–444), conducting a program evaluation of a rehabilitation program for incarcerated Veterans in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and research on measurement-based care and point of care studies in PTSD (Litz, B. T. (2023). It is time to flip the script and leverage the point of care to discover ways of improving treatment outcomes for posttraumatic stress disorder: commentary on “A sobering look at treatment effectiveness of military-related posttraumatic stress disorder”(Levi et al., 2021). Clinical Psychological Science, 11(2), 381-387). Dr. Litz has over 400 peer reviewed publications. He is a fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the American Psychopathological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science.

Publications

  • Published 5/27/2026

    O'Brien S, Goodman M, Litz B, Boulanger G, Finley E. Development of a Group Psychotherapy for Combat Veterans With Moral Injury: Protocol for a User-Centered Study. JMIR Res Protoc. 2026 May 27; 15:e87756. PMID: 42202476.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 5/24/2026

    Buccellato KH, Brown HN, Price WA, Straud CL, Blount TH, Foa EB, Brown LA, McLean CP, Schobitz RP, DeBeer BB, Mignogna J, Fina BA, Evans WR, Hall-Clark BN, Rentz TO, Schrader CC, Yarvis JS, Hansen H, Jacoby VM, Lara-Ruiz J, Hale WJ, Koch LM, Gerwell KM, Young-McCaughan S, Litz BT, Meyer EC, Williamson DE, Roache JD, Sharrieff AM, Niles BL, Keane TM, Peterson AL. Graduated exposure to traumatic events decreases distress during prolonged exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. J Behav Med. 2026 May 24. PMID: 42177712.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/24/2026

    Litz BT, Walker HE, Rusowicz-Orazem L, Styler ZR, Fielstein E, Darnell B, Meador KG, Nieuwsma JA. Establishing Clinically Significant Change Benchmarks for the Moral Injury Outcome Scale in VA Behavioral Health Settings. Assessment. 2026 Apr 24; 10731911261436687. PMID: 42027113.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/1/2026

    Fox PT, Salinas FS, Roache JD, Quinones M, Vaughan PW, Franklin C, Straud CL, Price L, Unzueta-Hernandez M, Woolsey MK, Chavez AM, Hoselton DA, Brundige AR, Litz BT, Young-McCaughan S, Keane TM, Peterson AL. Residential Therapy With Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Combat-Related PTSD: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2026 Apr 01; 9(4):e265110. PMID: 41945348.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/6/2026

    Nabity PS, McGeary CA, Eapen BC, Houle TT, Resick PA, Moring JC, Reed DE, Jaramillo CA, Penzien DB, Litz BT, Young-McCaughan S, Keane TM, Peterson AL, McGeary DD. Post-traumatic headache phenotypic characteristics and treatment utilization. Cephalalgia. 2026 Mar; 46(3):3331024261421527. PMID: 41789860.

    Read at: PubMed

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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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