Wave Neuroscience, the California company behind a magnetic brain treatment called Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy, says 68% of patients in its clinical trial reached remission from post-traumatic stress disorder. The device is cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for PTSD, but the 68% figure is the maker’s own, and the full trial results had not been published when Texas A&M University circulated the news on Oct. 23.
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The treatment is known as MeRT. It first records a patient’s brain activity with an electroencephalogram, then uses an AI-assisted algorithm to set the parameters for transcranial magnetic stimulation, a method that delivers magnetic pulses through the scalp. A course runs five sessions a week for five to six weeks.
Wave describes the system as personalized, which is the core of its pitch. Rather than applying one standard magnetic protocol to every patient, the company reads each person’s own EEG first and tailors the stimulation to it. The release says the same TMS platform had previously been cleared for treatment-resistant depression. Leslie Prichep, the company’s chief scientific officer, called the clearance an advance toward a more objective, data-informed model of mental health care, and chief executive Fred Walke said objective brain information can help patients understand their experiences and reduce stigma.
What Wave says the trial found
The figures were given by Erik Won, the company’s chief medical officer, in the Texas A&M release republished by ScienceDaily. Won said the company’s FDA trial reported a 52% reduction in PTSD symptoms and that 68% of participants were in remission. The release says the results are company-reported and preliminary, that benefits reportedly persisted after sessions ended, and that the clinical findings were still being prepared for public release. A SciTechDaily account of the same announcement repeats the numbers and carries the same caveat.
Several details that would let a reader weigh the 68% are absent from the release. It does not say how many people took part, who they were, which symptom scale was used, what counted as remission, how long follow-up lasted or what adverse events were recorded. It also does not name a journal. Without those, the remission rate cannot be compared directly with other trials, and the release itself cautions that its comparison figures come from different studies.
The comparison it offers is a 2020 review of PTSD medications, which the release says reported symptom improvements of 6.8 to 10.1 points and remission rates of at most 10.9%. Because the review and the MeRT trial used different methods, the two sets of numbers are context rather than a head-to-head result.
What the FDA clearance covers
Trade reports describe the regulatory step in plain terms. Patient Care reported on June 12, 2026, citing a company press release from June 10, that the FDA cleared the MeRT system for PTSD, and that the system had received Breakthrough Device designation in 2024. The same report describes the supporting study as a double-blind, randomized, controlled, multisite clinical study, while noting that it gave no sample size and that the clearance rests on company-reported results.
A second trade outlet, the HMP Global Learning Network, dated its item June 11 and tied the work to a trial registered as NCT02990793, conducted with the Texas A&M Health Institute of Biosciences and Technology. It said specific efficacy data were not disclosed, describing only significant and clinically meaningful reductions in symptom severity. The registry entry for NCT02990793 is the place where the formal design and enrollment would be listed. Neither report states a clearance date or the FDA pathway used.
Why researchers see room for a non-drug option
Texas A&M’s account frames MeRT against the limits of current care. Kenneth Ramos, a physician-scientist at the university, said most clinical interventions for PTSD do not work very well. Israel Liberzon, the lead psychiatrist on the work at Texas A&M, said that for the first time a non-medication option sits alongside medication for the condition. Rick Silva, who works on clinical trials at the university, explained that the Breakthrough designation speeds review without lowering scientific standards.
The release puts the scale of the problem at about 7% of veterans receiving a PTSD diagnosis each year and about 6% of Americans experiencing the condition in their lifetimes. A treatment that fits into a five-to-six-week schedule could matter to those groups if the results hold, but the numbers that would show whether they do are still unpublished. The 68% and 52% figures are what the maker reports; independent confirmation will have to come from the full trial data. For readers, the practical meaning is narrow: a regulator has cleared the device, and its maker says the trial went well, but the evidence behind the remission figure has yet to be laid out in a form others can check.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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