Out of those suffering from manic depression - Evaluate Argument

Question

Out of those suffering from manic depression, patients who live at home have more bouts of depression than do patients at mental health care facilities. As a part of an experiment, some of the patients in the mental health care facility were relocated to home environments, from which stress-causing factors had been eliminated. It was found that the patients at home environments had more depression bouts than the patients at the mental health care facilities. Therefore, the opinion that the stress-free environment of mental health facilities is the sole reason for their success is clearly wrong.

Which of the following, if true, helps assess the validity of the conclusion?

A. Most of the patients observed in the home environments were living with family members.

B. There were some patients in the health care facility who would have preferred to remain in their home environments.

C. The doctors observing patients in their home environments were more accredited than the doctors observing the other group.

D. The dosage of anti-depressive medicine was the same for patients in both the groups studied.

E. The time period of study was sufficient for patients to acclimatize to new surroundings that could otherwise have caused severe anxiety.

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Official Answer

E

Rashie1 · Answer

A. Most of the patients observed in the home environments were living with family members.
This is just a description of the home setup — it doesn’t tell us whether family presence increases or decreases depression, so it doesn’t really help test the conclusion.

B. There were some patients in the health care facility who would have preferred to remain in their home environments.
Patient preference might affect happiness, but it doesn’t directly show whether the stress-free environment is or isn’t the main reason for facility success.

C. The doctors observing patients in their home environments were more accredited than the doctors observing the other group.
Doctor accreditation affects observation quality, but the conclusion is about causes of depression bouts, not about measurement accuracy.

D. The dosage of anti-depressive medicine was the same for patients in both the groups studied.
This controls for one possible difference i.e medicine dosage but doesn’t address the most likely confound here — the stress or adjustment period from relocation.
E. The time period of study was sufficient for patients to acclimatize to new surroundings that could otherwise have caused severe anxiety. 
 If the time period wasn’t enough, higher depression bouts in home patients could just be due to temporary relocation stress, not because the home environment is actually worse. Knowing they had time to acclimate removes that doubt, so the conclusion becomes stronger.
ANSWER - E

incid · Answer

D. The dosage of anti-depressive medicine was the same for patients in both the groups studied. 
If medication levels differed between groups, that could explain the difference in depression bouts, undermining the conclusion. Keeping dosage the same controls a major confounder and helps assess whether the stress-free environment alone accounts for outcomes.

Axwe7 · Answer

Still unsure of why the answer to this isn't option D. Negating it - i.e., dosage for anti-depressive medicines is different, would absolutely crush the conclusion since it introduces another variable into the equation from which there is not basis for a 'control'.

Mihirrr009 · Answer

If you try to evaluate D. We are not sure whose dosage is changed whether of patients at home or at medical centers. But with E you are sure that new surroundings are for patients shifted to home

ahddhah · Answer

Okay so think it like it like this if one patient who is sent to home environment was not on the same dosage amount then why do we need to have them same dosage amount so clearly it wont be able to evaluate.

ARoX · Answer

I think it should be D.

Also, technically anxiety and depression and two different things. When the passage clearly talks about depression, why are we linking it to anxiety.

Jujustrollss · Answer

would it be possible to get an expert to weigh in on this? Option D seems like the most correct answer

Tanabhumi · Answer

In my opinion, choice D is possible but not the best one. It mentions the dosage of the med, but what is the main focus of the argument? The focus is on the change of places, or environment, whether those changes affect the patient's mental state or not.

That’s where choice E comes in. It addresses whether the test period was sufficient to determine if the conclusion holds true or not. If the time was not enough to properly test the main idea, then the argument cannot fully confirm its conclusion.

So, while D is reasonable, it is not the best choice.

shankk · Answer

How does E work? If it's their home environment how is it new surroundings. If anything, the facilities would be new surroundings, no?

egmat · Answer

Patients were living in mental health facilities. Then they were relocated back to home environments (with stress factors removed).
Even though it's their own home, they're returning to it after living in a facility. That's still a transition—a change in their living situation.

Think about it: if you lived in a dorm for a year and then moved back home, wouldn't there be an adjustment period? Even though it's your home, you've adapted to facility life—the routines, the structure, the daily environment. Going back home means readjusting.  "New surroundings" doesn't mean unfamiliar—it means a changed living situation you need to adapt to.

What if patients are having more depression just because they recently transitioned back home? That depression might have nothing to do with home vs. facility—it might just be adjustment anxiety from the change itself. E addresses this by telling us whether enough time passed for adjustment. If patients had time to settle back in, then the depression is about the home environment itself, not just the stress of transitioning. If not enough time passed, we're just measuring transition anxiety, not the actual comparison.

shankk · Answer

You're right, I somehow missed the fact that the patients were being relocated from the institutes to their homes and assumed that it was a study of patients being treated at home without ever having gone to an institution vs people who were being treated at an institution.

Out of those suffering from manic depression - Evaluate Argument

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Out of those suffering from manic depression - Evaluate Argument

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