Hugh MacPherson

Hugh MacPherson (1948–2020) was a professor of acupuncture research at the University of York, founder and trustee of the Northern College of Acupuncture, founder and co-ordinator of the international STRICTA group, clinic director of York Clinic, fellow of The College of Medicine, and a practising member of the British Acupuncture Council.

Biography After completing a PhD in applied mathematics at the University of New South Wales, Australia, in 1979, he trained in Chinese medicine, becoming a registered acupuncturist in 1983. He became clinical director of the York Clinic for Integrated Healthcare in 1986, and founded the Northern College of Acupuncture in York in 1988, acting as the college's principal from 1988 to 1997. Between 1997 and 2003, he was the research director of the Foundation for Research into Traditional Chinese Medicine, York. He then worked in the Health Science Department at the University of York, first as a senior research fellow, and in 2016 as Emeritus Professor. He researched and wrote about acupuncture from 1992 to 2020, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed articles on the subject. He died in August 2020.

He appeared on a number of radio and television programs, including BBC Radio 4's The Other Medicine, BBC Two's Alternative Medicine: The Evidence, BBC Three's Kick Ass Miracles and BBC Two's Trust Me, I'm a Doctor.

Research

Hugh MacPherson's research on acupuncture for low back pain was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), and subsequently was central to the decision by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to recommend acupuncture for persistent low back pain in 2009. His study of acupuncture or counselling for ongoing depression in primary care found that both acupuncture and counselling are effective for patients, the majority of whom were taking antidepressants.

Controversy

Hugh MacPherson was Principal Investigator on a study that investigated acupuncture and brain imaging in York, which was filmed by BBC Two Science but received press criticism for not being good science. The BBC Trust subsequently received a complaint about the programme that questioned the "significance accorded to brain-imaging results following deep needling." The BBC defended the series against what they described as "unjust, inaccurate and damaging allegations made in the national press". When this complaint related to the brain imaging was considered by the BBC Trust in 2007, it was not upheld. Three peer-reviewed publications (references below) resulted from this study, which established new results on acupuncture's impact on brain function. This included a publication, published in the journal Brain Research, which showed that acupuncture works by deactivating pain pathways in the brain.

Publications

Selected articles 2015. 2013. 2012. 2012. 2012. 2011. 2010. 2010. 2009. 2008.

Edited volumes

2011. Integrating East Asian Medicine into Contemporary Healthcare, edited by Volker Scheid and Hugh MacPherson. Churchill Livingstone. . 256 pages. 2007. Acupuncture Research: Strategies for Establishing an Evidence Base, edited by and Hugh MacPherson, Richard Hammerschlag, George Lewith, and Rosa Schnyer. Churchill Livingstone. . 288 pages. 1996. Acupuncture in Practice: Case History Insights from the West, edited by Hugh MacPherson and Ted Kaptchuk. Churchill Livingstone. . 482 pages.

Chapters in Books

2012. MacPherson H. "Assessing Acupuncture: Practical Examples", in Boutron I, Ravaud P, Moher D. (eds.) Randomised Clinical Trials of Nonpharmacological Treatments. Chapman & Hall/CRC Biostatistics Series 46, Boca Raton, Florida, pp 387. 2011. Witt CM, MacPherson H, Kaptchuk TJ, Wahlberg A. "Efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency", in Scheid V, MacPherson H. (eds.) Integrating East Asian medicine into contemporary healthcare. Elsevier, Edinburgh, pp 244. 2007. White A, Wayne P, MacPherson H. "Exploring treatment effects: studies without control groups" in MacPherson H, Hammerschlag R, Lewith G, Schnyer R. (eds.) Acupuncture Research: Strategies for building an evidence base. Elsevier, London, pp 261, 2007 2007. Schnyer RN, Birch S, MacPherson H. "Acupuncture practice as the foundation for clinical evaluation", in MacPherson H, Hammerschlag R, Lewith G, Schnyer R. (eds.) Acupuncture Research: Strategies for building an evidence base. Elsevier, London, pp 261. 2007. MacPherson H, White A, Bensoussan A. "The safety of acupuncture", in MacPherson H, Hammerschlag R, Lewith G, Schnyer R. (eds.) Acupuncture Research: Strategies for building an evidence base. Elsevier, London, pp 261. 2007. MacPherson H, Thomas K. "Introduction: acupuncture and the emerging evidence base", in MacPherson H, Hammerschlag R, Lewith G, Schnyer R. (eds.) Acupuncture Research: Strategies for building an evidence base. Elsevier, London, pp 261, 2007.