RESEARCHERS from York were today the focus of international medical attention with the publication of their new study into the safety of acupuncture.

The team, from the Acomb-based Foundation for Traditional Chinese Medicine, have hailed the results as a step forward in their campaign to get the treatment provided on the NHS.

They found that acupuncture was far safer in the treatment of chronic pain than commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and Diclofenac.

Hugh MacPherson, research director, said the findings, which were published today in the British Medical Journal, were proving to be their most high-profile work to date and had already stirred up a lot of interest at home and abroad.

The researchers wrote to 1,848 acupuncturists registered with the British Acupuncture Council and 574 agreed to take part. They were asked to record any "adverse events" and monitored 34,000 treatments between them.

The data showed there were no serious incidents, no deaths and no-one permanently disabled.

Mr MacPherson said: "It is very, very unlikely for anything serious to happen. We knew that would be the case, but we have got the figures now."

He said that by contrast, another piece of research, carried out at the Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, had found there were 2,000 deaths a year out of 20 million prescriptions for Ibuprofen and Diclofenac.

The researchers did find 43 "events", among the 34,000 acupuncture treatments, where patients complained of conditions including fainting, dizziness, nausea, the symptoms getting worse, bruising and psychological reactions.

The foundation, which is a research-only organisation, is currently working on more research on how acupuncture can help back pain and heavy periods.

Mr MacPherson said a limited amount of acupuncture was available on the NHS for pain relief but not the kind of treatment available in clinics.

"Our goal, the goal of the research institute, is that it should be on the NHS. People should have the right to choose. It should be one of the options for back pain, migraine and heavy periods.

"I think within ten years it will be much more widely available."

He said the number of people using acupuncture had shot up over the last 20 years. Mr MacPherson started practising in York in 1982 and still spends half his time with patients, at the York Clinic of Complementary Medicine on Tadcaster Road. He is also president of the Northern College of Acupuncture.

Updated: 08:17 Friday, August 31, 2001