Medical Term for Goosebumps
The medical term for the appearance of goosebumps on the skin is "piloerection." 1
Alternative Medical Terminology
- Cutis anserina (literally "goose skin" in Latin) is another formal medical term used to describe this phenomenon 1
- The term "gooseflesh skin" is also used in clinical assessment scales 1
- In clinical documentation, you may encounter the descriptor "hairs standing up on arms" when describing observable piloerection 1
Clinical Context and Assessment
Piloerection is formally assessed and graded in various clinical settings:
In opioid withdrawal assessment, the Clinical Opiate Withdrawal Scale (COWS) grades piloerection from 0 (skin is smooth) to 5 (prominent piloerection), with an intermediate score of 3 when "piloerection of skin can be felt or hairs standing up on arms" 1
The Subjective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS) includes "I have goose bumps" as a patient-reported symptom rated from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely) 1
In research settings studying brown adipose tissue activation, piloerection serves as an indicator that subjects have been exposed to temperatures below thermoneutrality, which is a critical consideration in experimental protocols 1
Physiological Mechanism
Piloerection occurs through contraction of the arrector pili muscles attached to hair follicles, causing hair to stand erect and creating the characteristic bumpy appearance on the skin surface 2, 3