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.

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.

He researched and wrote about acupuncture from 1992 to 2020, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed articles on the subject.

Between 1997 and 2003, he was the research director of the Foundation for Research into Traditional Chinese Medicine, York.

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.

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.

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”.

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 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.