Physician: The hormone melatonin has shown promise as a

Question

Physician: The hormone melatonin has shown promise as a medication for sleep disorders when taken in synthesized form. Because the long-term side effects of synthetic melatonin are unknown, however, I cannot recommend its use at this time.

Patient: Your position is inconsistent with your usual practice. You prescribe many medications that you know have serious side effects, so concern about side effects cannot be the real reason you will not prescribe melatonin.

The patient's argument is flawed because it fails to consider that

(A) the side effects of synthetic melatonin might be different from those of naturally produced melatonin
(B) it is possible that the physician does not believe that melatonin has been conclusively shown to be effective 
(C) sleep disorders, if left untreated, might lead to serious medical complications
(D) the side effects of a medication can take some time to manifest themselves
(E) known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot

OG2017 CR 565 P516

thevenus · Accepted Answer

(A) the side effects of synthetic melatonin might be different from those of naturally produced melatonin
 naturally produced melatonin is out of scope so it's comparison with the synthetic one.

(B) it is possible that the physician does not believe that melatonin has been conclusively shown to be effective 
 "The hormone melatonin has shown promise as a medication for sleep disorders ....."   it's mentioned very well that melatonin is effective !

(C) sleep disorders, if left untreated, might lead to serious medical complications
 may or may not be true but this has nothing to do with the argument.

(D) the side effects of a medication can take some time to manifest themselves
 the time of action is not into consideration.

(E) known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot
 " ....Because the long-term side effects of synthetic melatonin are unknown....."   the physician has been providing many medicines to patients because the physician knew the side effect and its magnitude but since this (melatonin) has no known side effects so the physician is not prescribing it considering that it might harm the patient.

BillyZ · Answer

Melatonin
 
  Step 1: Identify the Question

The word  flawed  in the question stem indicates that this is a  Find the Flaw  question. Flaw questions are closely related to Weaken questions with one big difference:  Weaken  questions will contain the language  if true , while Flaw questions will NOT.

Step 2: Deconstruct the Argument

Dr: M = effective, BUT: side effects unknown → can’t prescribe
Pa: you prescribe other meds w/ side effects → why not M?

The physician’s argument is this: M’s side effects are unknown, so he can’t recommend using it. The patient counters this argument by claiming that the physician must actually have some other reason to avoid prescribing M. The physician prescribes other medications that have serious side effects, so unknown side effects aren’t (according to the patient) a valid excuse.

Step 3: Pause and State the Goal

On  Flaw  questions, the goal is to find an answer choice that  undermines one of the argument’s assumptions . What is the patient overlooking or what bad assumption is he making in drawing his conclusion?.

Step 4: Work from Wrong to Right

(A) Unless the argument also provides information about natural melatonin, knowing that the two types of melatonin are different from each other doesn’t affect the argument, which is purely about synthetic melatonin.
(B) This answer choice states that there is another reason that the physician chooses not to prescribe melatonin—he is concerned about its efficacy, rather than its safety. However, this isn’t something that the patient has failed to consider. In fact, this type of issue is exactly what the patient is concerned about.
(C) Failing to consider the serious medical consequences of sleep disorders is a criticism that would be more appropriately levied at the physician than the patient.
(D) The argument deals only with which side effects a medication has, not the time frame in which those side effects make themselves known.
 (E) CORRECT . The doctor’s argument specifically regards the  unknown side effects of melatonin . In the patient’s response, he draws an analogy between melatonin and other medications with known serious side effects. In doing so, the patient assumes—perhaps incorrectly—that known and unknown side effects should be treated in the same way.

mojorising666 · Answer

E.

Doc- unknown side effects
Patient- known side effects.

GAP here- patient mistakingly correlates/equates known side effects to unknown side effects

answer choice that attacks this is the answer.

E does that.

PUNEETSCHDV · Answer

E patient himself tells that the doctor knows the side effects of the medicines he prescribes

crackHSW · Answer

Clear winner E , as Doctor does not prescribes the ones which have unknown side effects but patient is arguing about that doctor does prescribe medication with side effects. the gap is there 
Medication with unknown side effect which Dr will not prescribe vs Medication which has known side effects.

HanoiGMATtutor · Answer

The flaw in reasoning is the patient's equating known side effects with unknown side effects.

Answer choice E.

sasyaharry · Answer

Summarize:
Doctor has a remedy but he does not know the side effects.
Doctor is inconsistent according to the patient.

Generalize:
 doctor can probably treat him if he has seen such side effects before.   The only answer close to this is  E

longhaul123 · Answer

here in this argument the Physician's argument is about the unknown risk but the patients argument is about the serious risk , the flaw in this consideration should be resolved. Hence E is the best answer.

anum23 · Answer

We have to pay clear attention to the wording here.

Patient talks about prescribing pills with serious side effects where doctor says he is unaware of the side effects.

This gap and difference gets us the right answer which is E.

thinking of the answer in your mind before jumping to answer choices increases your chance of getting to the right answer! Do try it.

kornn · Answer

Dear  AjiteshArun   VeritasKarishma   DmitryFarber   VeritasPrepBrian   GMATNinjaTwo ,

I have one question on choice E:
 (E) known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot

I think some words are omitted at the end of choice E. as underlined below:
 (E) known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot   (be weighed against (un)known benefits)

Is the "benefits" of synthetic melatonin also "unknown"?

According to the passage,  Physician: The hormone melatonin has shown  promise  as a medication for sleep disorders when taken in synthesized form.

I'm not sure how to interpret "promise" -- should it be known or unknown benefits?

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi varotkorn , Here is how I think that statement is meant to be read: Known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot be weighed against known benefits. That seems to fit the situation. The physician says that melatonin has shown promise as a medication for sleep disorders. If it has shown promise for something, surely that is a known benefit? But that's just how I read it. It'd be good to get a (I don't know how else to say this!) second opinion here.

kornn · Answer

Dear  AjiteshArun ,

That's how I read it as well.
However, OE in choice B. says:
 
So, in light of the bolded portion, I'm not sure how to interpret the omitted part in choice E.

AjiteshArun · Answer

Hi  varotkorn ,

I don't see anything wrong in saying that just the possibility of treating something is a known benefit. But let's sit tight for now and wait for more opinions on this.

CEdward · Answer

Physician: The hormone melatonin has shown promise as a medication for sleep disorders when taken in synthesized form. Because the long-term side effects of synthetic melatonin are unknown, however, I cannot recommend its use at this time.

Patient: Your position is inconsistent with your usual practice. You prescribe many medications that you know have serious side effects, so concern about side effects cannot be the real reason you will not prescribe melatonin.

The patient's argument is flawed because it fails to consider that

What the patient fails to understand is all of the considerations that go into prescribing a medication. Their view of the doctor’s practice is very shallow …the correct answer will capitalize on this lack of depth of thought.

(A) the side effects of synthetic melatonin might be different from those of naturally produced melatonin X
-no…the patient was referring to prescribed medications…those that the doctor prescribes…
(B) it is possible that the physician does not believe that melatonin has been conclusively shown to be effective X
-no…the patient doesn’t need to consider this

(C) sleep disorders, if left untreated, might lead to serious medical complications X
-this is true, but that’s not what the patient missed

(D) the side effects of a medication can take some time to manifest themselves X
-again this is also true for certain medications, but it isn’t the problem with the logic

(E) known risks can be weighed against known benefits, but unknown risks cannot 
Correct…the doctor prescribes certain medications considering that overall the benefits outweigh the inherent risks, but the doctor cannot account for things that are unknown

jabhatta2 · Answer

Response in OG guide was good I thought

ramlala · Answer

Only reason of th doctor is that he does not know the side effects of synthetic melatonin.
However patient argued that doctor prescribe many medicationst that have serious side effect.

Here we have mismatch. Regarding Side effect, argue by patient is known to doctor.

The same is convyed in E.

brianmontanaweb · Answer

We know that the physician mentions unknown side effect, while the patient mentions known side effect. The benefits could outweigh the known side effects, while the unknown side effects can't be weighed against unknown benefits. A "promise" doesn't lead to a known benefit it's a hypothetical benefit that could be a correlation.

E answers the question concisely and the only option that mentions unknown risks.

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Physician: The hormone melatonin has shown promise as a

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