Girija - from the press release:

In the current study, Dr. Nirenberg and first author Christina A. Rabinak, a third-year medical student at Weill Cornell Medical College, performed a retrospective analysis of a cohort of 93 people with Parkinson's disease, of whom 40 received DAs, and 26 tapered a DA for any of a variety of reasons -- most commonly because of ICDs. Among those who tapered a DA, five patients (19 percent) experienced DAWS. Two of the subjects with DAWS recovered fully, but three of the five were unable to successfully discontinue the drug because of severe withdrawal symptoms. These three study participants are currently living with their ICDs.

The NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell researchers made several observations about DAWS:

* DAWS only occurred in patients with ICDs, and not in those who tapered DAs for other reasons. However, only one-third of patients with ICDs experienced DAWS.
* Withdrawal symptoms were only alleviated by increasing the DA dosage. Other treatments, including high doses of L-DOPA, antidepressants, tranquilizers and psychotherapy, were ineffective.
* DAWS correlated with cumulative exposure to DAs, with the most severe symptoms occurring in patients with the greatest DA exposure.
* Subjects with DAWS had milder physical disability than those without.