New Insomnia Drugs Have the Potential to Reduce the Risk of Abuse and Overdose

Dr. David Neubauer, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine discusses the current landscape of insomnia treatments and the petition for the DEA to de-schedule the Dual Orexin Receptor Antagonists (DORAs) class of insomnia medications which offer an entirely different approach to treating insomnia and meets an unmet need for longer-term use with little risk of dependence.

David N. Neubauer, MD, is associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Neubauer is also the medical director of the Psychiatry Mobile Treatment Program at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Neubauer earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in anthropology, and a bachelors degree in biology at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. He also pursued further graduate study in anthropology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He went on to earn his medical degree at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and then completed his residency in psychiatry at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Neubauer is a diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the Sleep Research Society, the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Medical Association. He is a consultant to the Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. He was a consultant to Consumer Reports Health for the 2005 review of treatments for insomnia. Neubauer is a frequent guest lecturer and the author of journal articles, book chapters, and abstracts.

He is the author of the insomnia chapter in Conn’s Current Therapy 2004, the sleep disorders chapter in Conn’s Current Therapy 2007, and a book, Understanding Sleeplessness: Perspectives on Insomnia.

Neubauer has acted as a consultant to Neurocrine Biosciences, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, and Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America.