Dr. med. Katharina Fleig
Dr. med. Katharina Fleig studied Human Medicine at the Hannover Medical School, the University of Tartu in Estonia, and the University Hospital St. Gallen, Switzerland (2017–2024). She was awarded a university scholarship from the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2020–2024). During her studies, she worked as a student research assistant at the Project "SICKO - Sicherheit in der Kinderonkologie" (Prof. Dr. Lorenz Grigull and Dr. Urs Mücke) at Hannover Medical School (2019–2023). She completed her medical doctoral thesis in the Department of Medical Sociology at Hannover Medical School (Prof. Dr. Siegfried Geyer) with 'magna cum laude' in 2024.
Since September 2024, she has been working as an assistant physician at the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at Ulm University Hospital (Prof. Dr. Harald Gündel). At the Seminar for Psychotherapeutic training from the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy she is currently completing her psychodynamic psychotherapeutic training.
As a Clinician Scientist funded by the German Centre for Child and Adolescent Health, Dr. med. Katharina Fleig has joined the Department of Clinical and Biological Psychology (Prof. Dr. Iris-Tatjana Kolassa) in April 2025. Her research focuses on the role of nutrition in the pathophysiology and treatment of mental health disorders in children, adolescents and adults. She is currently coordinating a partial project of the study 'MitoSwitch ', investigating the relationship between nutrition and brain metabolism in mental and neurological disorders.
Contact
Katharina Fleig
Postdoc / Clinician Scientist
✉ katharina.fleig(at)uni-ulm.de
Consultation hours:
on appointment
Research interests
- The impact of macro- and micronutrition on the pathophysiology, prevention and treatment of mental health disorders
- The relevance of sex and gender of psychotherapist and patient in the psychotherapeutic process
Research projects
- 2e-kids – Twice exceptional kids
- MitoSwitch - Metabolism, Nutrition and Mental disorder
Publications
- Fleig, K., Haslinger, L., Dawczynski, C., & Kolassa, I. T. (2026). Omega-3 fatty acids in mental disorders: from neurobiological and metabolic mechanisms to therapeutic potential. Frontiers in nutrition, 13, 1748196.
- Rahn, A., Herbach, A. L., Bock, C., Fleig, K., & Mücke, U. (2026). Psychological Safety Among Interprofessional Pediatric Oncology Teams in Germany: A Nationwide Survey. Pediatric blood & cancer, 73(4), e70144.
- Fleig, K., Acquaah, R., Rahn, A., Bock, C., Herbach, A. L., & Mücke, U. (2025). Psychological Safety in Pediatrics: A Scoping Review. Psychologische Sicherheit in der Pädiatrie: Ein Scoping-Review. Klinische Padiatrie, 10.1055/a-2735-0998. Advance online publication.
- Böker H, Doering S, Fuchs T, Fleig K., Gündel H, et al. (2025). Psychodynamische Psychiatrie: Aktuelle Impulse für die klinische Praxis.
- Fleig K., Tiroke P., Pittau F., Mücke U. (2024). Interprofessionelles Team-Training für Pflegeauszubildende und Medizinstudierende in der Pädiatrie: analoge und digitale Formate im Vergleich. Klinische Pädiatrie.
- Geyer S, Fleig K., Norozi K, Röbbel L, Paul T, et al. (2021) Life chances after surgery of congenital heart disease: A case-control-study of inter- and intragenerational social mobility over 15 years. PLOS ONE 16(2): e0246169.
Awards & Scholarships
- European Association for Psychosomatic Medicine Conference Award 2026
- German Association for Psychiatry Annual Meeting Travel award, 2023
- University studies scholarship of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (German Academic Scholarship Foundation), 2020-2024
- Lower Saxony Science Prize in the category ‘Students – Volunteering’, 2022
- Lower Saxony Scholarship, 2020 and 2023
Teaching
- Ärztliche Gesprächsführung (Winter- und Sommersemester 2024/2025)
- Das schwierige Gespräch (Winter- und Sommersemester 2025/2026)