Mark Litt, Ph.D.

Professor | University of Connecticut

Farmington, CT, UNITED STATES

Professor Litt is an expert in health behaviors, especially addictive behaviors, and chronic pain

Biography

Mark Litt, a professor at the UConn School of Dental Medicine and School of Medicine, studies health behaviors. He is an expert on addictive behaviors, including alcohol use disorder; cannabis use disorder; smoking and e-cigarette use; pain and pain management, such as TMJ pain; adherence to medical regimens and self-care.

Areas of Expertise (4)

Coping and Behavior Change

Chronic Pain

Health Behaviors

Addictive Disorders

Education (3)

Yale University: Ph.D.

Yale University: M.S.

Claremont Men's College: B.A.

Media

Publications Photos Videos Documents Audio

Publications:

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Media Appearances (3)

Recreational marijuana stokes concerns about youth substance abuse

Hartford Courant online

2018-11-26

“If I had to choose, I’d probably say legalization should go forward,” said Mark Litt, a professor of behavioral sciences and community health at UConn Health. “It would help to regulate what is already an underground market. But the problem is, the market will expand exponentially.” “It will blow up,” he added...

Dental Phobia: Strategies To Help Patients Overcome Fears, Which Are Common

Hartford Courant online

2018-11-16

Litt, a psychologist, teaches a course on understanding pain and anxiety and the effects of medication to second and third year dental students at the UConn School of Dentistry. There have been many advances in medications used to treat pain, Litt said, but these don't address the problem of overcoming a patients' fears, which can keep them away from the dentist all together. Dental students are taught to introduce anxious patients to the sources of their terror. They may let them hold a drill or the syringe that delivers a shot of Novocain. Patients, Litt suggests, need to share their fears so dentists can help address them.

The Dope On Cannabis in Connecticut: 5 things to know

New Haven Register online

2017-02-28

“It’s like trying to do a study with heroin,” said Mark Litt, a professor of Behavioral Sciences, Community Health and Psychiatry at UConn Health. Litt runs a treatment program for people addicted to marijuana. Because marijuana is illegal at the federal level, it has been difficult to get funding to do clinical trials with the drug, let alone legally obtain it, though rules are relaxing. There have been studies showing its usefulness in relieving chronic pain, the spasms associated with multiple sclerosis, and vomiting and nausea caused by chemotherapy...

Research Grants (1)

Individualized Assessment and Treatment Program for TMD: Coping as a Mechanism

Coping as a Mechanism $499,138

2020 - 2025 Study to test highly tailored cognitive-behavioral treatment for temporomandibular/orofacial pain. Role: PI

Articles (5)

Heightened olfactory dysfunction and oral irritation among chronic smokers and heightened propylthiouracil (PROP) bitterness among menthol smokers

Physiological Behavior

2019 Chronic cigarette smoking may influence chemosensory function, which in turn, may affect cigarette usage. Because menthol in cigarettes can attenuate nicotine bitterness, choice of menthol/nonmenthol cigarettes may be influenced by ability to perceive bitterness. We examined chemosensory function of chronic smokers, hypothesizing they would show altered function in comparison to non-smokers and by menthol cigarette preference

Modeling Associations between Chemosensation, Liking for Fats and Sweets, Dietary Behaviors and Body Mass Index in Chronic Smokers

Nutrients

2019 Chronic smokers have a greater risk for altered chemosensation, unhealthy dietary patterns, and excessive adiposity. In an observational study of chronic smokers, we modeled relationships between chemosensation, fat/carbohydrate liking, smoking-associated dietary behaviors, and body mass index (BMI).

E-cigarette palatability in smokers as a function of flavorings, nicotine content and propylthiouracil (PROP) taster phenotype

Addiction Behavior

2019 The popularity of E-cigarettes is due in part to their flavorings. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect on smokers' sensory perceptions and liking of various e-cigarette flavorings, and the degree to which those perceptions are influenced by nicotine level, sex, and PROP bitter taster phenotype.

What the World Needs Now: A Prescriptive Measure of Alcohol Outcomes Commentary on Witkiewitz et al.,

Alcohol Clinical Experiment Research

Urban Science

2019

Chronic Cigarette Smoking Associates Directly and Indirectly with Self-Reported Olfactory Alterations: Analysis of the 2011-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Nicotine and Tobacco Research

2017 Population-based studies show inconsistent effects of cigarette smoking on olfactory function. We aimed to identify direct and indirect associations between measures of smoking exposure/nicotine dependence and altered olfaction in a nationally representative sample of adults.