Recovery Beyond Buprenorphine: Nurse-Led Group Therapy.

It has taken the tragedy of swelling opioid overdoses to raise addictions to national attention. This past year, a new law called the Comprehensive Addictions Recovery Act has helped to open doors for nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe buprenorphine. Although this medication can assist those dependent on opioids in finding needed stability, medication-assisted treatment is only the beginning. Addiction and psychiatric nurses must play a larger role in providing various therapies that coincide with medication-assisted treatment to support ongoing recovery. One treatment option is group therapy, which is effective for individuals with substance use as well as other co-occurring disorders to develop needed skills to remain in recovery. The purpose of this review is to explore the nursing role in group therapy for substance use as well as encourage addictions and psychiatric nurse practitioners to offer recovery-focused group therapy to this population.