GMAT prep TOUGH CR Questions

[sudaif]

I have attempted to explain why each answer choice is wrong...but i'm not very confident about my explanations. if a GMAT instructor can help, that would be great. The question is:

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?
(A) For a small percentage of depressed patients, missing a night's sleep induces a temporary sense of euphoria.
(B) Keeping depressed patients awake is more difficult than keeping awake people who are not depressed.
(C) Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol.
(D) The dramatic shifts in mood connected with sleep and wakefulness have not been traced to particular changes in brain chemistry.
(E) Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes.

Question is asking for what will complete the reasoning above i.e. explain why "sleep-deprivation" is not used as a technique to cure depression.
A) Irrelevant - small percentage is not consequential, neither does this choice explain above
B) the comparison between depressed and non-dep people is irrelevant at best
C) May be a reason why it is not used...but from the sounds of it, drug therapy has "serious side effects" which trumps the "temporary impairment of judgement"
D) I don't know what the deal with this is....the questions is a "which of the following if true..." but the concept of brain chemistry just sounds far fetched and irrelevant.
E) if sleep deprivation is only a temporary solution to alleviating depression that it may not be that viable an option

None of the answers stand out to me. I would be stumped on th exam on such a Q. Please provide interpretation/explanation of each answer choice. thank u in advance.

OA is E

[RonPurewal]

i've already posted on answer choices (c) and (e) at the following link:
depression-critical-reasoning-gmatprep-t3888.html

i'll discuss the remaining choices here.

first, make sure that you note the purpose of the question. the purpose of the question is to provide a good reason why we should NOT use sleep deprivation as a treatment for depression.

therefore, we must find a specific reason why sleep deprivation is ineffective against depression.
did you understand that much? if so, the problem still may not necessarily be easy to solve, but at least a couple of choices can be eliminated immediately.

A) Irrelevant - small percentage is not consequential, neither does this choice explain above

actually, this choice is worse than "irrelevant" -- this actually introduces another positive effect of sleep deprivation. remember, we're looking for negative effects.

B) the comparison between depressed and non-dep people is irrelevant at best
correct.
also, two more things:
1) we are not sure whether it's actually difficult to do this. we are told it's more difficult than it is with non-depressed patients ... but we don't know about the absolute difficulty. (for instance, if this is incredibly easy to do with non-depressed patients, then "more difficult" may still refer to a very low level of difficulty.)
2) even if it is difficult to enforce the sleep deprivation, that's not necessarily a reason why we shouldn't use it as a treatment modality. after all, if it is effective, then it should be used even if it is "difficult" to use it.

C) May be a reason why it is not used...but from the sounds of it, drug therapy has "serious side effects" which trumps the "temporary impairment of judgement"

see link above.

D) I don't know what the deal with this is....the questions is a "which of the following if true..." but the concept of brain chemistry just sounds far fetched and irrelevant.

this choice just discusses the state of theoretical knowledge; there is no real relationship between treatment modalities and what is written here.
i.e., this argument is solely concerned with, basically, what works and what doesn't. for the sake of this particular argument, it doesn't really matter why anything works, or how.

E) if sleep deprivation is only a temporary solution to alleviating depression that it may not be that viable an option

see link above.

[saptadeepc]

i've already posted on answer choices (c) and (e) at the following link:
depression-critical-reasoning-gmatprep-t3888.html

i'll discuss the remaining choices here.

first, make sure that you note the purpose of the question. the purpose of the question is to provide a good reason why we should NOT use sleep deprivation as a treatment for depression.

therefore, we must find a specific reason why sleep deprivation is ineffective against depression.
did you understand that much? if so, the problem still may not necessarily be easy to solve, but at least a couple of choices can be eliminated immediately.

A) Irrelevant - small percentage is not consequential, neither does this choice explain above

actually, this choice is worse than "irrelevant" -- this actually introduces another positive effect of sleep deprivation. remember, we're looking for negative effects.

B) the comparison between depressed and non-dep people is irrelevant at best
correct.
also, two more things:
1) we are not sure whether it's actually difficult to do this. we are told it's more difficult than it is with non-depressed patients ... but we don't know about the absolute difficulty. (for instance, if this is incredibly easy to do with non-depressed patients, then "more difficult" may still refer to a very low level of difficulty.)
2) even if it is difficult to enforce the sleep deprivation, that's not necessarily a reason why we shouldn't use it as a treatment modality. after all, if it is effective, then it should be used even if it is "difficult" to use it.

C) May be a reason why it is not used...but from the sounds of it, drug therapy has "serious side effects" which trumps the "temporary impairment of judgement"

see link above.

D) I don't know what the deal with this is....the questions is a "which of the following if true..." but the concept of brain chemistry just sounds far fetched and irrelevant.

this choice just discusses the state of theoretical knowledge; there is no real relationship between treatment modalities and what is written here.
i.e., this argument is solely concerned with, basically, what works and what doesn't. for the sake of this particular argument, it doesn't really matter why anything works, or how.

E) if sleep deprivation is only a temporary solution to alleviating depression that it may not be that viable an option

see link above.

Hi Ron,

Sorry to bump on this old thread, but had a doubt with one of the wrong choices :)

Statement says :- Even though there are side effects, drug and electric shock are used.

If from option 'D' we conclude that, the reason of such mood swings, which can make a person feel better, has not been traced to brain, then we can say, the doctors do not approve of this method coz they are unaware of the side effects and therefore do not recommend it.

Option 'E', which is the correct one and I m not questioning it says depression returns in full force.

Please correct the flaw in my reasoning.

[RonPurewal]

If from option 'D' we conclude that, the reason of such mood swings, which can make a person feel better, has not been traced to brain,

that is not what choice (d) says. choice (d) only says that scientists haven't figured out the exact chemical changes in the brain that cause these things.
the knowledge of that exact chemistry isn't relevant to the issues at hand.