Desperate parents turn to magnetic therapy to help kids with autism. They have little evidence to go on

Thomas VanCott compares his son Jake's experience with autism to life on a tightrope. Upset the delicate balance and Jake, 18, plunges into frustration, slapping himself and twisting his neck in seemingly painful ways. Like many families with children on the autism spectrum, Jake's parents sought treatments beyond traditional speech and behavioral therapies. One that seemed promising was magnetic e-resonance therapy, or MERT, a magnetic brain stimulation therapy trademarked in 2016 by a Newport Beach-based company called Wave Neuroscience. The company licensed MERT to private clinics across the country that offered it as a therapy for conditions including depression, PTSD and autism. Those clinics described MERT as a noninvasive innovation that could improve an autistic child's sleep, social skills and -- most attractive to the VanCott family -- speech. It was expensive -- 9,000 -- and not covered by insurance.