Depression_Critical Reasoning_GMATPREP

[Guest]

According to a review of 61 studies of patients suffering from severly debilitating depression, a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression. Yet sleep-deprivation is not used to treat depression even though the convential treatments, which use drugs and electric shocks, often have serious side effects.

Which of the following if true best explains the fact that sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?

I chose C

C: Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alchol.

OA E.

E. Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

please explain what is wrong with C !!!

[Guest]

[quote="Anonymous"]According to a review of 61 studies of patients suffering from severely debilitating depression, a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression. Yet sleep-deprivation is not used to treat depression even though the conventional treatments, which use drugs and electric shocks, often have serious side effects.

Which of the following if true best explains the fact that sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?

C: Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol.

--vs--

E. Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

People suffer from depression. Sleep deprivation is reported to temporarily cure depression. Sleep deprivation is not used to treat depression because....
1) Sleep deprivation has more/worse side effects then drugs and/or electric shock ----or---- 2) Sleep deprivation isn't a proper treatment and doesn't work

C) This answer choice tells us that not sleeping for a while can lead to temporary impairment of judgment similar to having a few cocktails. Is this side effect worse then those of the other treatments? I don't know.

E) Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.
This answer choice leaves much less room for argument and if its true, would really explain why they don't use it. Because it doesn't work no matter how long or short the patient sleeps for.

Try to find the answer that really puts the nail in the coffin.

[Guest]

According to a review of 61 studies of patients suffering from severely debilitating depression, a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression. Yet sleep-deprivation is not used to treat depression even though the conventional treatments, which use drugs and electric shocks, often have serious side effects.

Which of the following if true best explains the fact that sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?

C: Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol.

--vs--

E. Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

People suffer from depression. Sleep deprivation is reported to temporarily cure depression. Sleep deprivation is not used to treat depression because....
1) Sleep deprivation has more/worse side effects then drugs and/or electric shock ----or---- 2) Sleep deprivation isn't a proper treatment and doesn't work

C) This answer choice tells us that not sleeping for a while can lead to temporary impairment of judgment similar to having a few cocktails. Is this side effect worse then those of the other treatments? I don't know.

E) Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.
This answer choice leaves much less room for argument and if its true, would really explain why they don't use it. Because it doesn't work no matter how long or short the patient sleeps for.

Try to find the answer that really puts the nail in the coffin.

Listen, I picked C because if the person is unable to make a good judgement, then there is no way to tell if actually did feel better after not sleeping. I still think C is better than E. ANY OTHER OPINION?

[Guest]

Listen, I picked C because if the person is unable to make a good judgement, then there is no way to tell if actually did feel better after not sleeping. I still think C is better than E. ANY OTHER OPINION?

A large majority of people suffering reported that not sleeping lifts the symptoms of depression.

They didn't sleep---->They feel better

You're saying: Not sleeping ----leads to----confusion which is the reason they reported feeling better. This is actually a good explanation as to why they said they felt better but it doesn't compare to the other answer.

I

[RonPurewal]

when you do these questions, you have to be VERY LITERAL, and you have to make sure that your responses STAY AS CLOSE TO THE QUESTION / CONCLUSION AS POSSIBLE.

in this problem, there isn't really a conclusion per se. but the question, which MUST be addressed, is the following:
Which of the following if true best explains the fact that sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?

choice (c) may argue against the practice of sleep deprivation in general, but it has little, if any, direct relevance to the issue of depression. not only that, but it requires the assumption that this impairment of judgment is somehow worse than the depression thereby alleviated (because otherwise it's still a beneficial tradeoff, even considering the impaired judgment).

choice (e) is CLEARLY relevant to the issue of depression, because it says, in so many words, that our alleged depression treatment will not get rid of depression.

there's no question which of these answer choices is more relevant to the question at hand. don't think too much about 'the big picture' when the question is actually focused on 'the small picture'.

[jp.jprasanna]

when you do these questions, you have to be VERY LITERAL, and you have to make sure that your responses STAY AS CLOSE TO THE QUESTION / CONCLUSION AS POSSIBLE.

in this problem, there isn't really a conclusion per se. but the question, which MUST be addressed, is the following:
Which of the following if true best explains the fact that sleep deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?

choice (c) may argue against the practice of sleep deprivation in general, but it has little, if any, direct relevance to the issue of depression. not only that, but it requires the assumption that this impairment of judgment is somehow worse than the depression thereby alleviated (because otherwise it's still a beneficial tradeoff, even considering the impaired judgment).

choice (e) is CLEARLY relevant to the issue of depression, because it says, in so many words, that our alleged depression treatment will not get rid of depression.

there's no question which of these answer choices is more relevant to the question at hand. don't think too much about 'the big picture' when the question is actually focused on 'the small picture'.

Ron - Many thanks for your explanation, just one question In CR I thought we can never contradict facts but option E

Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

is directly contradicting the fact stated in the stimuli

a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression

Hence I was very reluctant to choose Option E, could you please advise what's wrong in my thought process.

[RonPurewal]

Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

is directly contradicting the fact stated in the stimuli

a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression

Hence I was very reluctant to choose Option E, could you please advise what's wrong in my thought process.

what did you think was a contradiction?

these statements are perfectly consistent with each other: a sleepless night keeps depression at bay, but, as soon as the person does sleep again -- whenever that might be -- the depression comes back.

[jp.jprasanna]

Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

is directly contradicting the fact stated in the stimuli

a large majority of the patients reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression

Hence I was very reluctant to choose Option E, could you please advise what's wrong in my thought process.

what did you think was a contradiction?

these statements are perfectly consistent with each other: a sleepless night keeps depression at bay, but, as soon as the person does sleep again -- whenever that might be -- the depression comes back.

Grrrr.. Sorry my bad I need to get some sleep i think! Sorry again....

Cheers
JP

[RonPurewal]

it happens.

[jb_avinash]

Hi Ron,
I have a little query .I picked C.My line of reasoning was as the option says that the loss of sleep caused impairment of judgement and the people reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression,cant it be a case where because of this impairment in judgement they felt relieved of their depression while actually they were not.As soon as they gained proper judgement they they felt depressed.So this is supposed to mean loss of slep actually does not lift depression and gives the strongest cause for it not to be used as a treatment.


Thanks

[jlucero]

Hi Ron,
I have a little query .I picked C.My line of reasoning was as the option says that the loss of sleep caused impairment of judgement and the people reported that missing a night's sleep immediately lifted their depression,cant it be a case where because of this impairment in judgement they felt relieved of their depression while actually they were not.As soon as they gained proper judgement they they felt depressed.So this is supposed to mean loss of slep actually does not lift depression and gives the strongest cause for it not to be used as a treatment.


Thanks

That's a pretty subjective argument here, to say that someone doesn't actually feel better even though they say the feel better. I'd argue that some drugs have similar effects on the body- they make you feel better even if they don't address the underlying problem.

Put yourself in a doctor's shoes for a second here- if a treatment makes a patient feel better, but impairs their judgement, would you not recommend that treatment? If so, then you're arguing that doctors shouldn't offer any sort of drug that impairs a person's thinking. On the other hand, if a doctor knew that a treatment would only work for a day, come back the next time a patient fell asleep and every other time they did this activity that they would need to do for the rest of their life... you'd start looking for better treatments than sleep deprivation.

[MuhammedZ786]

I understand why E is correct. But can someone explain why B is wrong?

[RonPurewal]

the answer choices aren't even posted here.

please post the complete problem, exactly as originally presented, with all answer choices. thanks.