The Los Angeles Times (10/30, Purtill) reports that clinics have advertised “something called magnetic e-resonance therapy, or MERT, as a therapy for autism.” The clinics “licensing MERT have claimed that their trademarked version of the treatment can also produce ‘miraculous results’ in kids with autism, improving their sleep, emotional regulation and communication abilities. A six-week course of MERT sessions typically costs $10,000 or more.” However, the FDA “hasn’t approved MERT for this use.” Although off-label prescribing “is a legal and common practice in medicine,” a group of researchers “argue in a new peer-reviewed editorial in the medical journal Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation” that when “such treatments are offered to vulnerable people,” they should be “evidence-based, clearly explained to patients and priced in a way that reflects the likelihood that they will work as advertised. Most clinics advertising off-label TMS as a therapy for autism don’t meet those standards, the researchers say.” The editorial singles out MERT as an “example of off-label TMS where there is negligible evidence of efficacy.”
Related Links:
— “Families pay thousands for an unproven autism treatment. Researchers say we need ethical guidelines for marketing the tech,”Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2025