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A friendly reminder regarding spoilers! As always, the expanded Trek universe is in a period of major upheaval with the continuations of Strange New Worlds and Prodigy, the advent of new eras in gaming with the Star Trek Adventures RPG and Star Trek Online, as well as other eventful releases such as Section 31, the ongoing IDW Star Trek comic and spin-off Star Trek: Defiant. Therefore, please be courteous to other users who may not be aware of current developments by using the {{spoiler}}, {{spoilers}} OR {{majorspoiler}} tags when adding new information from sources less than six months old (even if it is minor info). Also, please do not include details in the summary bar when editing pages and do not anticipate making additions relating to sources not yet in release. THANK YOU

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Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

Pyrrhoneuritis was a very rare disease that affected humans in the 23rd century. Pyrrhoneuritis was first discovered on distant colony worlds, and eventually made its way back to Earth. Prior to a cure being discovered, the disease was always fatal. A person who had pyrrhoneuritis often lost a great deal of weight, and would often be in a great deal of pain as the disease progressed. A cure for pyrrhoneuritis was finally discovered in 2264.

One notable sufferer of pyrrhoneuritis was David Andrew McCoy, father of Leonard McCoy. When first diagnosed with the disease, the elder McCoy was a still robust and wiry 81 year old man. Within three months McCoy had lost about a third of his body weight, was crippled, bedridden, and wracked with pain. McCoy's agony became so unbearable, overwhelming even high doses of painkillers, that he begged his son Leonard to turn off his life support machinery. Leonard McCoy finally complied with his father's wish, but tragically a cure was discovered only a few weeks later. For many years McCoy struggled with the guilt over what he had done. While the younger McCoy shared his pain and guilt with Natira, it was not until 2287 that Sybok was able to help relieve McCoy of this pain and guilt once and for all. (TOS novels: Ex Machina, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)