The medical team at () speaks of “mental confusion and hallucinations” to describe the episode in which the patient attributes this to the drug interaction.
According to doctors, the use of Pregalabine was suspended immediately and Bolsonaro is clinically well. The episode, which the former president classified in his , led to his pre-trial detention being ordered the day before.
The doctors’ information is contained in a medical bulletin signed by doctors Cláudio Birolini and Leandro Echenique, who were with the former president in the morning at the Superintendence in Brasília, where Bolsonaro is being held in preventive custody.
“On the night of Friday, November 21st, the former president presented mental confusion and hallucinations, possibly induced by the use of the drug Pregabalin, prescribed by another doctor, with the aim of optimizing the treatment, but without the knowledge or consent of that team”, said the report signed by the doctors.
“This medicine has an important interaction with the medicines it [Bolsonaro] is regularly used to treat hiccups (Chlorpromazine and Gabapentin) and the recognized side effects include changes in mental state with the possibility of mental confusion, disorientation, abnormal coordination, sedation, balance disorders, hallucinations and cognitive disorders”, the text also says.
According to doctors, the medicine has been suspended and there are no residual symptoms so far.
Bolsonaro was preventively arrested this Saturday (22) by the PF by order of the minister, of the (Supreme Federal Court), under the justification of risk of escape and threat to public order.
The doctor cited as responsible for prescribing the medication that allegedly caused the former president’s hallucinations, Marina Pasolini, appeared before the PF Superintendence this Sunday.
Questioned by journalists at the door of the unit, and accompanied by a lawyer, Pasolini did not answer questions and only stated that she would evaluate the former president’s case. The doctor left the unit at 5:40 pm, about an hour after her arrival, without speaking to the press.
Since the beginning of the year, the former president has changed his medical team, and is mainly accompanied by general surgeon Cláudio Birolini and cardiologist Leandro Echenique. They are the ones who signed the medical report delivered by the defense to Moraes last Friday (21) to request maintenance of house arrest in the case of the coup plot — a request prior to preventive detention.
In October, Moraes authorized, at the request of the former president’s defense, the inclusion of endocrinologist Marina Pasolini in the list of doctors authorized to treat Bolsonaro at his home, where he was under house arrest, to help with multidisciplinary treatment as his hiccups worsened.
Marina is from Rio Grande do Sul, and has been working in Brasília since 2019. On her Linkedin, she presents herself as a specialist in weight loss and obesity.
On the Saturday of Bolsonaro’s preventive arrest, she went to visit him at the PF (Federal Police) Superintendence. Moraes authorized doctors and lawyers to go to the site, without the need for prior authorization. Echenique and Birolini, who were with the former president this Sunday, did not know the doctor.
The former president had been at home since August 4 and was taken by the PF after the arrest was ordered by Moraes, rapporteur of the case at the STF, under the justification of guaranteeing public order.
