Can Immediate Post-injury Fluoxetine Improve the Recovery Trajectories of Victims in Bodily Trauma?

Upwards of 40-85% survivors of bodily trauma (in the civilian world most commonly motor vehicle accidents, falls and assaults), develop moderate to severe negative psychiatric symptomology following their injuries. (2,7) This symptomology can persist for years; at least 20% of patients with musculoskeletal trauma, specifically, display symptomology consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology up to three years following their injury. (8) Poor mental health outcomes are an independent risk factor for poor physical and social outcomes. (9,10) These symptoms, which are highly impairing, are complicated and heightened by loss of work/income following trauma, limited financial and social resources, and a large percentage of the population being uninsured/underinsured. Research has demonstrated that the pressures of poverty and low socioeconomic status alone predispose to PTSD symptomology and poor coping mechanisms, and this is compounded by decreased ability to obtain and pay for mental health care by those impoverished. There are significant barriers to mental health care for many adults, and these hurdles are even more insurmountable for those under or uninsured, minorities, and those in rural communities. (11) Very few victims of trauma who screen positive for psychological disorder receive mental health services following injury (12% at 3-months from injury), and if so, it is far removed from the injury (22% at 24-months from injury).