Dysesthesia: what is this symptom, causes and types

Dysesthesia consists of the appearance of unpleasant sensations, often painful, which are not objectively justified by a given stimulus. In this sense, it is related to other similar alterations such as neuropathic pain and allodynia.

In this article we will describe what exactly is dysesthesia and what are its causes, as well as five of the most common types of dysesthesia: skin dysesthesia, dysesthesia associated with burning sensations, scalp dysesthesia, occlusal dysesthesia (or phantom bite), and genital dysesthesia.

• Related article: "Allodynia: Types, Causes, and Related Disorders"

What is dysesthesia?

The term "dysesthesia", which comes from the Greek and translates as "abnormal sensation", is used to refer to a perceptual phenomenon consisting of the appearance of sensations of pain, burning, tickling, itching or other annoyances without a causal stimulus involved, while other times it involves altered perceptions of real stimuli.

Following this definition, dysesthesia would include, for example, sensations of pain when brushing the hair and when putting on or taking off clothes, as well as the continuous perception of tingling in the toes or fingers hands.

The most common is that episodes of dysesthesia occur in the legs and feet, although it is also common for these sensations to appear in the arms, on the face or as a sensation of pressure around the torso, both the chest and the abdomen.

Abnormal perceptions can occur in a timely and brief manner, but this is not always the case: in some cases, dysesthesia consists of the sustained presence of discomfort without an objective cause identifiable.

People who suffer from this symptom often report that worsens when trying to fall asleep, after exercise or exertion and as a consequence of changes in ambient temperature.

• You may be interested in: "The 13 types of pain: classification and characteristics"

Causes of this alteration

The sensations that are categorized as dysesthesia have a neurological origin. They are often due to injuries to the spinal and spinal nerves caused by disorders of the nervous system. In this sense, many episodes of dysesthesia can be included in the general label of “neuropathic pain”.

Therefore, and although intuitively many people with this symptom think that the damage is located in the skin (or in another part of the body where they feel the pain), the truth is that the alteration is associated with the nerves.

A very common cause of dysesthesia is multiple sclerosis., which damages the myelin sheaths, interfering with the transmission of electrochemical impulses through the nervous system. This causes the brain to have difficulty interpreting the perceptions it receives from the peripheral fibers and the conscious sensory experience to be abnormal.

Other factors that are associated with the appearance of dysesthesia are diabetes mellitus, herpes, Guillain-Barré syndrome, Lyme disease, cerebrovascular accidents that affect the thalamus, withdrawal from substances such as alcohol, the consumption of some medications and chemotherapy treatments.

On the other hand, there are authors who defend that dysesthesia has a psychogenic origin; from this point of view this symptom would be classified as a psychosomatic disorder, and has been linked to disorders such as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. However, research confirms the presence of neurological lesions in many cases.

• Related article: "Hyperalgesia: increased sensitivity to pain"

types of dysesthesia

The scientific literature has collected different types of dysesthesia that are especially frequent or significant due to their clinical interest. Let's see what each of them consists of.

1. cutaneous dysesthesia

Cutaneous dysesthesia is a very common type of this disorder, since most episodes are associated with sensations on the skin. As we have previously said, these include pain but also itching, tingling or burning.

2. burning dysesthesia

It is common for people with dysesthesia to feel an intense burning sensation in different parts of the body, as if they were burning. A special subtype is burning mouth syndrome, a form of oral dysesthesia which is characterized by pain similar to that of canker sores.

3. on the scalp

Dysesthesia also commonly appears on the scalp. In these cases, patients report both pain and burning and other discomforts. Technically it is a subtype of cutaneous dysesthesia, although it has also been studied independently.

4. Occlusal dysesthesia (phantom bite)

Occlusal dysesthesia, also known as "ghost bite", often occurs after dental surgery. It is characterized by an annoying sensation of forcing the jaws in a similar way to a sustained bite and frequently causes intense pain when ingesting food and liquids.

5. genital dysesthesia

More cases of genital dysesthesia have been detected in men than in women. It is generally associated with a burning sensation; when the discomfort is located in the penis, we speak of penile dysesthesia, while If the burning occurs in the scrotum, the concept "burning scrotum syndrome" is used..