Brett Litz
Professor

- Title Professor
- Office (857) 364-4131
- Email litzb@bu.edu
- Education PhD, SUNY Binghamton
Principal Investigator: Litz Lab
Biographical Sketch
Dr. Litz earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and did his clinical internship at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and the Psychology Department at Boston University as well as the Director of the Mental Health Core of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiological Research and Information Center at the VA Boston Healthcare System.
Research Interests
Dr. Litz is principal investigator on various research projects funded by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. 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. He also evaluates the mental health outcomes associated with military deployments across the lifespan and develops and validates assessment instruments to evaluate PTSD and moral injury. Dr. Litz’s recent work entails evaluating the social, psychological, and spiritual impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars among active-duty military personnel and veterans and conducting clinical trials of a psychotherapy developed by Dr. Litz and his colleagues called Adaptive Disclosure, which targets warzone trauma, loss, and moral injury. He has over 300 publications and has authored three books. Dr. Litz is a fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the American Psychopathological Association, and the Association for Psychological Science, and he is a former member of the Psychological Subcommittee of the Defense Health Board. He has also been a member of various special committees sponsored by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Selected Publications
- Gray, M., Schorr, Y., Nash, W., Lebowitz, L., Lansing, L., Lang, A. & Litz, B. (2012). Adaptive Disclosure: An open trial of a novel exposure-based intervention for service members with combat-related psychological stress injuries. Behavior Therapy, 43(2), 407-415.
- Litz, B., & Carney, J. R. (2018). Employing loving-kindness meditation to promote self-and other-compassion among war veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, 5(3), 201.
- Litz, B. T., Engel, C. C., Bryant, R., & Papa, A. (2007). A randomized controlled proof of concept trial of an internet-based therapist-assisted self-management treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 1676-1683
- Litz, B. T., Salters-Pedneault, K., Steenkamp, M. M., Hermos, J. A., Bryant, R. A., Otto, M. W., & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). A randomized placebo-controlled trial of D-cycloserine and exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 46, 1184-1190.
- Litz, B.T., Stein, N., Delaney, E., Lebowitz, L., Nash, W. P., Silva, C., & Maguen, S. (2009). Moral injury and moral repair in war veterans: A preliminary model and intervention strategy. Clinical Psychology Review, 29(8), 695–706.
- Nash, W.P., Boasso, A., Steenkamp, M., Larson, J., Lubin, R., & Litz, B.T. (2015). Posttraumatic Stress in Deployed Marines: Prospective Trajectories of Early Adaptation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(1), 155-171.
- Steenkamp, M.M., & Litz, B.T. (2013). Psychotherapy for Military-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Review of the Evidence. Clinical Psychology Review, 33, 45–53.
- Steenkamp, M.M., Litz, B.T., Hoge, C.W., Marmar, C.R. (2015). Psychotherapy for Military-Related PTSD: A Review of Randomized Clinical Trials, Journal of the American Medical Association, 314, 489-500.
- Yeterian, J. D., Berke, D. S. , & Litz, B.T.. (2017). Psychosocial rehabilitation after war trauma with adaptive disclosure: Design and rationale of a comparative efficacy trial. Contemporary clinical trials, 61, 10-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2017.07.012
- Yeterian, J.D., Berke, D.S, Carney, J.R., McIntyre-Smith, A., St. Cyr, C., King, L., Kline, N.K., Phelps, A., and Litz, B.T. (in press). Defining and Measuring Moral Injury: Rationale, Design, and Preliminary Findings from the Moral Injury Outcome Scale Consortium . Journal of Traumatic Stress.