The days following a serious injury can be a critical window for healthcare providers to safeguard a patient’s mental health alongside physical healing. Those who received the medication experienced a more notable reduction in PTSD symptoms over the following year compared to those who were given calcium as a control. Researchers estimate that nearly half of individuals with traumatic injuries see some decline in mental health afterward. Dr. Jennifer Hagen, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Florida, and her team questioned whether waiting for PTSD symptoms to appear was the only option. These findings suggest that fluoxetine might influence the trajectory of mental health recovery after trauma, rather than just treating symptoms after they arise.