In recent decades, several studies have examined the effects of both natural and man mad disasters, on a vulnerable population, the mentally ill.

Objectives were to determine the impact of Tunisian revolution events on the psychiatric hospitalizations in January 2011 and to compare them with January of the last 2 years (2010 and 2009).

It was a retrospective, descriptive and comparative study. All patients admitted in the psychiatric “C” department in Sfax teaching Hospital (Tunisia) between first and 31 January of 2009, 2010 and 2011 were identified through medical records. We collected for each patient the socio-demographic, clinical and therapeutic data. We compared the frequency, the reasons for hospitalization and the predominant delusion themes, for these three periods.

The number of psychiatric hospitalizations in January 2009 and 2010 was 39, while in 2011it was 56 (almost one and a half). the three studied groups of patients (2009, 2010 and 2011) had no statistically significant socio-demographic difference. in January 2011, the psychomotor excitation (37.5%) and aggressive behavior (37.5%) were the main reasons for hospitalization. States of psychomotor excitations were also more frequent in January 2011 (37.5%) compared with January 2010 (7.7%) and January 2009 (25.6%).

Delusion of politics was the most common in January 2011 (17.9% of themes) but non- existent in January of 2009 and 2010. These results show that the number of psychiatric hospitalizations has increased during January 2011. But, did the revolution events represent the determining factor behind this increase in psychiatric hospitalizations?