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

OA is later. Will you explain how to solve this CR? For me, there are at least 3 answers that can be possibly correct

E

Which of the following, if true, best explains the fact that sleep-deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression?
•For a small percentage of depressed patients, missing a night’s sleep induces a temporary sense of euphoria. --- which does not explain why sleep-deprivation is not used as a treatment for depression
•Keeping depressed patients awake is more difficult thank keeping awake people who are not depressed. --- more difficult can mean anything - 0.1% more difficult might not be very dfficult even though its 'more' dificult
•Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol. ---- Different problem, not relevant, also is temporary as indicated
•The dramatic shifts in mood connected with sleep and wakefulness have not been traced to particular changes in brain chemistry. ----not relevant
•Depression returns in full force as soon as the patient sleeps for even a few minutes. --- makes most sense in the context since it doesnt solve the main issue

Thank you, guys.

Now it makes sense. OA is E.
GREAT JOB!!!

E is funny and correct . it also implies that in order to prevent depression the patient should not sleep. for 1 day it is ok ... for 2 days ) for 4 day :D for 40 days of depression free life one should avoid 40 days of sleep :p
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Answer is E because if depression returns back in FULL FORCE then that treatment is no good.
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Good replies above on why E is the correct answer. I was just talking to a student about ruthless quick-elimination based on scope (a really valuable skill) and thought it might be useful here too. As you get really good at recognizing what is or is not relevant to the conclusion, you can often avoid thinking too much about the answers at all-- as *soon* as you recognize it's out of scope (which can take 3 seconds sometimes!) you can cross off that choice and move on. If something looks like it will take a little more time to evaluate, feel free to *defer* rather than spending a lot of time to evaluate it in sequence. You may get rid of all the others quickly, which will leave you with the correct answer in the least amount of time. Or you may come across something clearly better down the road (again, the most efficient use of time).

We're being asked to explain why sleep deprivation, while successful at lifting depression after a night, isn't used to treat depression.

(A) "For a small percentage of patients"-- you can almost stop reading here. Who cares about a small percentage, unless there is some really horrible side effect? A quick skim of the rest of the choice reveals that this group experiences something GOOD, not bad. Nix.

(B) Keeping depressed patients awake is more difficult than keeping awake people who are not depressed. Again, who cares? We only care about treatment of depression-- we're not comparing depressed people to un-depressed people.

(C ) Prolonged loss of sleep can lead to temporary impairment of judgment comparable to that induced by consuming several ounces of alcohol.
(Hmmm...This one actually does show a negative effect of sleep deprivation. I might DEFER here.)[/color]

(D) The dramatic shifts in mood connected with sleep and wakefulness have not been traced to particular changes in brain chemistry. Who cares about *why* it works (unless, again, there's some negative?) We know THAT it works, and want to know why we don't use it more.

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

Whoa, in full force? And in even a few minutes? Well, we clearly have to sleep at some point, so this is a BIG drawback, and much more directly so than C. So we don't have to waste time thinking intensely about C (which is less relevant to the issue we're trying to resolve), and can go with E in the least possible amount of time.
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E for me!