Dr. Sarah Potthoff

Institute for Medical Ethics, History
and Philosophy of Medicine

Von-Esmarch-Strasse 62
D-48149 Münster

Phone: +49-251-83-52483
Fax: +49-251-83-55339

sarah.potthoff [ad] uni-muenster.de

 

  • Publications

    Selected Publications

    Monograph

    • Potthoff S (2016) Negotiating Gender Justice and Cultural Diversity. A qualitative Study about Nari Adalats (Women‘s Courts) in rural Karnataka, South India. Dissertation: Universität Bielefeld

    Edited special issue

    • Potthoff S, Hempeler C, Scholten M, eds. (2023). Research ethics in qualitative health research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. doi.org/10.1177/16094069231189335

    Articles in peer-review journals

    • Gaillard, A.-S., Gather, J., Haferkemper, I., Vollmann, J., Potthoff, S., Scholten, M. & Braun, E. (2025): A template for a psychiatric advance directive: Co-development and qualitative evaluation with key stakeholders. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 103: 102135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2025.10213
    • Gieselmann, A., Werning, A., Potthoff, S., Vollmann, J., Gather, J., & Scholten, M. (2025). Ethical conflicts arising from treatment refusals in psychiatric advance directives: an interview study with mental health professionals. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 1–8. doi:10.1017/ipm.2025.10086
    • Potthoff, S., Koesling, D. & Bozzaro, C. (2025). Social dimensions as explanatory approaches for the development of chronic pain: a meta-ethnography of qualitative studies. International Journal for Equity in Health 24, 198. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02560-w.
    • Efkemann, S., Haferkemper, I., Heuer, I., Lux, U., Spiegel, S., Stefaniak, C., Thesing, M., Werning, A. & Potthoff, S. (2025). Die Doppelfunktion der Psychiatrie: Unterstützungs- und Schutzauftrag – (k)ein Widerspruch? – Eine Reflexion von Betroffenen, Angehörigen und Forschenden zu Ethik und Zwang in der Psychiatrie. Recht & Psychiatrie 2/2025, 43:78-86.
    • Faissner, M., Braun, E., Efkemann, SA., Gaillard, A-S., Haferkemper, I., Hempeler, C., Heuer, I., Lux, U., Potthoff, S., Scholten, M., Spiegel, S., Stefaniak, C., Thesing, M., Werning, A. and Gather, J. (2025). Establishing a peer advisory board in a mental health ethics research group – challenges, benefits, facilitators and lessons learned. Frontiers in Psychiatry 16:1516996. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1516996
    • Potthoff, S., Roth, F., Vollmann, J., & Scholten, M. (2024). Improving the Ethics Review of Qualitative Health Research: A Comparison of Review Practices and Suggestions for Improvement by Researchers and Members of Research Ethics Committees. Qualitative Health Research, 10497323241293709. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323241293709
    • Hempeler, C., Scholten, M., Gather, J., Juckel, G., & Potthoff, S. (2024). Treatment Pressures and the Predicament of Family Care: A Grounded Theory Study With Relatives of People With a Serious Mental Health Condition. Qualitative Health Research, 10497323241300042. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323241300042
    • Hempeler C, Potthoff S, Scholten M, Juckel G, Jakov G (2024): Strategies to promote treatment compliance: a grounded theory study with relatives of people with a serious mental health condition. BMC Psychiatry 24, 490. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-024-05907-9
    • Potthoff S, Roth F, Scholten M, (2024). Qualitative health research and procedural ethics: An interview study to investigate researchers‘ ways of navigating the demands of medical research ethics committees in Germany. Research Ethics, 20(2), 388-410. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470161231202135
    • Potthoff S, Hempeler C, Gather J, Gieselmann A, Vollmann J, Scholten M (2023). Research ethics in practice: An analysis of ethical issues encountered in qualitative health research with mental health service users and relatives. Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-023-10169-5
    • Sterie A-C, Potthoff S, Erdmann A, Burner-Fritsch IS, Aluh DO, Schneiders ML (2023). Dimensions of researcher vulnerability in qualitative health research and recommendations for future practice. International Journal of qualitative Methods, Vol. 22, doi/10.1177/16094069231183600
    • Hempeler C, Braun E, Potthoff S, Gather J, Scholten M (2023). When treatment pressures become coercive: A context-sensitive model of informal coercion in mental healthcare. The American Journal of Bioethics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2023.2232754
    • Scholten M, Efkemann S, Faissner M, Finke M, Gather J, Gergel T, van der Ham L, Juckel G, van Melle AL, Owen G, Potthoff S, Stephenson LA, Szmukler G, Vellinga A, Vollmann J, Voskes Y, Werning A, and Widdershoven G (2023). Opportunities and challenges of self-binding directives: A comparison of research with stakeholders in three European countries. European Psychiatry. 66(1), e48, 1–6, https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.2421
    • Erdmann A & Potthoff S (2023). Decision criteria for the ethically reflected choice of a member check method in qualitative research – a proposal for discussion. International Journal of qualitative Methods, Vol. 22. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231177664
    • Potthoff S, Finke M, Scholten M, Gieselmann A, Vollmann J, Gather J (2022). Opportunities and risks of self-binding directives: A qualitative study involving stakeholders and scientists in Germany. Frontiers in Psychiatry 13:974132. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.974132
    • Potthoff S, Gather J, Hempeler C, Gieselmann A, Scholten M. (2022). „Voluntary in quotation marks“: a conceptual model of psychological pressure in mental healthcare based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews with service users. BMC Psychiatry 22, 186 (2022).  https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03810-9
    • Potthoff S (2018). Interpretations of Justice. Conceptions of Family and Gender Justice at a Nari Adalat (Woman’s Courts) in South India. Socio & Legal Studies. https://doi.org/10.1177/0964663918815943
    • Potthoff S (2016). Women within Family Disputes: Making and Negotiating a Claim at a Nari Adalat. ASIEN. The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 138, January 2016. doi.org/10.11588/asien.2016.138.18596 ;

    Book chapter (peer-review)

    • Potthoff, S. & Erdmann, A. (2025) "Improving the Ethics Review of Qualitative Health Research Through Increased Collaboration Between Research Ethics Committees, Researchers and Research Participants", Busby, H. (Ed.) Reframing Qualitative Research Ethics (Advances in Research Ethics and Integrity, Vol. 12), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, 217-233. doi: 10.1108/S2398-601820250000012013

    Commentaries, perspectives and editorials in peer reviewed journals

    • Scholten, M., Braun, E., Potthoff, S., Gather, J. & Hempeler, C. (2025). Focusing on Service User Perspectives to Uncover the Boundary Between Treatment Pressure and Informal Coercion. The American Journal of Bioethics, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2025.2470680
    • Potthoff, S., C. Hempeler & M. Scholten. 2023. “Research ethics in qualitative health research.” International Journal of Qualitative Methods 22: 1-3. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231189335
    • Scholten, M, Efkemann S, Faissner M, Finke M, Gather J, Gergel T, Gieselmann A, van Melle L, Owen G, Potthoff S, Stephenson L A, Szmukler G, Vellinga A, Vollmann J, Voskes Y, Werning A, and Widdershoven G. (2023). “Implementation of self-binding directives: Recommendations based on expert consensus and input by stakeholders in three European countries.” World Psychiatry. 22 (2): 332-333. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.21095

    Short article

    • Faissner, M., Gather, J., Haferkemper, I., Heuer, I., Lux, U., Potthoff, S., Spiegel, S., Stefaniak, C., Thesing, M. & Werning, A., (2023). Der SALUS Betroffenen- und Angehörigenbeirat. Ein kollaborativer Bericht über Erfahrungen, Chancen und Herausforderungen in der Zusammenarbeit. Sozialpsychiatrische Informationen 1(2023)

  • Research

    Research Focus

    • Qualitative social research and methodology
    • Research ethics
    • Psychological pressure, coercion, and advanced directives in psychiatry
    • Gender justice and family dynamics
    • Social dimensions of chronic pain

  • Background

    Curriculum Vitae

    Since August 1, 2024, Dr. Sarah Potthoff has been a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Ethics, History, and Theories of Medicine at the University of Münster. She leads a research project on the relevance of social dimensions in chronic pain. Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Experimental Medicine at the University of Kiel and at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine at Ruhr University Bochum. Sarah also lectured on qualitative methods and was a deputy professor of qualitative methods in the Department of Social Sciences at Ruhr University Bochum. She studied sociology and literature at Bielefeld University and received her PhD in sociology in 2016 with a dissertation on gender justice and women's courts in rural South India.

    Sarah has also conducted several empirical studies on research ethics, psychological pressure and advanced directives in psychiatry, and the role of research ethics committees. Her methodological expertise includes multi-method research designs that combine interviews, focus groups, observations, and document analysis.

    Memberships and Functions

    since 2024
    Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Qualitative Methods

    since 2024
    Associate Editor of the journal Qualitative Health Research

    since 2022
    Member of the section Methods of Qualitative Social Research of the German Sociological Association (DGS)

    since 2021
    Certified consultant (K1) for ethics consulting in health care, Academy for Ethics in Medicine (AEM)

    since 2020
    Member of the Academy for Ethics in Medicine (AEM) and the AEM section on Ethics in Psychiatry

    Awards

    • 2025: Research Award of the Arbeitskreis Medizinischer Ethik-Kommissionen (AKEK)
    • 2023: Award for Philosophy and Ethics in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy by the German Association for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (DGPPN) Psychotherapie (together with C. Hempeler, E. Braun, J. Gather & M. Scholten)