Cenesthopathy (from , formed from the Ancient Greek () "common", () "feeling", "perception" + () "feeling, suffering, condition"), also known as cenesthesiopathy and coenesthesiopathy, is a rare psychiatric term used to refer to aberrant, intrusive, and distressing internal bodily sensations (for example, a feeling of wires or coils being present within the oral region; tightening, burning, pressure, tickling) without corresponding organic or physiological abnormalities. It represents a distortion of cenesthesia; the internal, global, implicit, and affective sense of inhabiting one's body.
The term was coined in 1907 by French neuropsychiatrists and Paul Camus in their seminal paper Les cénesthopathies, to describe a clinical entity characterized by "alterations of the common or internal sensibility"; disorders of sensations that continuously arrive at the brain from throughout the body.
Several conceptual classification schemes for cenesthopathy have been proposed. Hozaki classified cenesthopathy into primary monosymptomatic and secondary forms, with the latter appearing secondary to neurological or psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, substance abuse, or mood disorders, and the former manifesting as isolated perceptual delusions involving abnormal bodily sensations without an underlying disorder. Yoshimatsu proposed a more phenomenologically nuanced five-group classification based on mental manifestation features, complaint details, and patient attitude:
The established occurrence of coenesthetic hallucinations in 18% of individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis of schizophrenia has led to the formulation of a separate subgroup of schizophrenia in the ICD-10, called cenesthopathic schizophrenia. Cenesthopathic schizophrenia is included (but not defined) within the category "other schizophrenia" () in the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems.
Oral cenesthopathy
In the DSM-5, oral cenesthopathy is categorized under "Delusional Disorder, Somatic Type" (DDST), which encompasses conditions where delusions center on bodily functions or sensations. In the ICD-10, it is categorized as a "persistent delusional disorder" or "other schizophrenia".