Group Therapy for Substance Use Disorders: A Survey of Clinician Practices

ABSTRACT

Substance use disorder (SUD) treatment is typically delivered in group format, but clinical research focuses on individual therapy. This exploratory study narrows this gap through a survey of 566 SUD group clinicians in the United States, concerning most commonly used group practices, attitudes about evidence-based treatments (EBTs), and beliefs about addiction. Clinicians reported high use of open groups, moderately high utilization of EBT practices, and moderate use of questionable practices. Clinicians' attitudes about EBTs and beliefs about addiction were correlated with the use of certain EBTs and questionable practices. Strategies for implementation of EBTs in group settings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Substance use disorder treatment
• group therapy
• evidence-based practice
• treatment-as-usual
• evidence-based treatment implementation

Acknowledgments

This study was conducted while Dennis C. Wendt was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards T32 DA007267 and T32 AA007455. This article was written during Joseph P. Gone's tenure as the Katz Family Endowed Chair in Native American Studies at Montana State University; he also expresses gratitude to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for fellowship support. Research expenses were funded by several grants administered by the University of Michigan: Rackham Graduate Student Research Award, Edward S. Bordin Graduate Research Fund, Psychology Dissertation/Thesis Grant, and Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. We acknowledge Stephen Chermack, Ashley Gearhardt and Beth Glover Reed, for their mentorship; Autumn Kramer, for assisting with study recruitment; and Emma Saraff, for online survey management.