Autism treatment helps veterans with PTSD

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (KABC) --

He's now back in Orange County, but one memory from the war continues to haunt him.

"I had a traumatic brain injury, cerebral spinal fluid and blood coming out of my ears, and watched my best friend burn alive," Warren said.

In 2006, Warren and his team were in a Humvee hit by an IED blast. Remarkably, no one died. But while Warren's physical wounds healed, his psyche was damaged. He didn't know how badly, until he returned to civilian life.

"Everybody was a threat, so I was always sizing people up, seeing if they had a bomb," Warren said.

He was showing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - anxious, depressed and unable to sleep. He tried to self-medicate by using pain killers, alcohol and marijuana. He tried therapy. Nothing worked.

Then about a year ago, someone referred him to the Brain Treatment Center in Newport Beach.

"We're using very powerful magnetic fields to change literally how the brain is working, the frequencies of which the brain is running," said Dr. Robert Silvetz, chief science officer and physician liaison at Brain Treatment Center.

Known as neuromodulation, the treatment is typically used to help children with autism by stimulating areas of the brain that don't work the way they should.

Doctors at the Brain Treatment Center believe it can also help veterans by restoring parts of the brain affected by war.

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Autism treatment helps veterans with PTSD