Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. While dieting can help re

Question

Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. While dieting can help reduce the amount of weight gained while taking such antidepressants, some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable.

The information above most strongly supports which one of the following?

A. A physician should not prescribe any antidepressant drug for a patient if that patient is overweight.
B. People who are trying to lose weight should not ask their doctors for an antidepressant drug.
C. At least some patients taking antidepressant drugs gain weight as a result of taking them.
D. The weight gain experienced by patients taking antidepressant drugs should be attributed to lack of dieting.
E. All patients taking antidepressant drugs should diet to maintain their weight.

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

The correct answer choice is (C).

The causal relationship in this problem appears in the premise, and the argument is structured as follows: Premise: Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. Premise: Dieting can help reduce the amount of weight gained while taking such antidepressants. Conclusion: Some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable. Note that the causal premise specifically states that “most” antidepressants cause weight gain, not necessarily all antidepressants. Also, the second premise specifically refers to antidepressants causing weight gain (the use of “such” indicates this). The second premise also indicates that the amount gained can be reduced, not that dieting can stop weight gain. Perhaps the antidepressants cause a twenty pound weight gain, but dieting can reduce that to a ten pound total gain. The question stem is a Must Be True, and thus you must accept the stimulus information and find an answer that is proven by that information.

Answer choice (A): This is an Exaggerated answer. The stimulus indicates that most antidepressants cause weight gain, leaving open the possibility that some do not. This answer choice references any antidepressant drug. Further, the stimulus does not address the role of a physician or the advisability of prescribing certain drugs under certain conditions. The benefits of prescribing an antidepressant that causes weight gain to an overweight patient may well outweigh the negatives (pun intended).

Answer choice (B): This is also an exaggerated answer. The stimulus allows for antidepressants that do not cause weight gain.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer.  Some individuals taking antidepressants that cause weight gain will gain weight even though dieting can reduce the amount of the gain.

Answer choice (D): This is an Opposite answer. The stimulus and correct answer both indicate that people taking the weight gain-causing antidepressants will gain weight regardless of whether they diet. Thus, the weight gain cannot be attributed to a lack of dieting.

Answer choice (E): This answer is too strong. Not all patients necessarily take antidepressants that cause weight gain, so those that do not might not need to diet to maintain their weight.

shelrod007 · Answer

A. A physician should not prescribe any antidepressant drug for a patient if that patient is overweight. Stem says most antidepressants cause weight gain not all .

B. People who are trying to lose weight should not ask their doctors for an antidepressant drug. Stem says most antidepressants cause weight gain not all .

C. At least some patients taking antidepressant drugs gain weight as a result of taking them. Best answer considering the fact that most anti depressants cause weight gain , dieting helps them loose it but some weight gain is inevitable would mean at least some patients gain weight .

D. The weight gain experienced by patients taking antidepressant drugs should be attributed to lack of dieting. Stem says even if they diet they will gain some weight .. so irrelevant

E. All patients taking antidepressant drugs should diet to maintain their weight. Irrelevant since most antidepressant cause weight gain not all .

Hence answer is C

souvik101990 · Answer

Here's my qualm for C: it's not definitively proven. Here's how:

The passage says that "Most" antidepressant drugs cause weight gains. One only gains weight if one takes "such" drugs. So what if everybody is taking the rest of the antidepressant drugs that do not necessarily cause weight gain? In that case we'd have nobody who gains weight.

And that would be something to consider on a must be true question stem. This is a most strongly supported question stem, so we can have leeway.

The stimulus is not one of tying together conditionals or quantifiers, so this one will be won in the answer choices:

We want to pick the most supported answer choice:

A) Physicians should not prescribe antidepressant if patient is overweight. We do not have a lot of support in the way of what physicians should do. I mean we can have a situation of these antidepressants be in the interest of taking rather than not. And in any case, we could prescribe others that may not cause weight gain. We don't know for sure they exist, but we also don't know that they are precluded either.

B) I have to agree with the above posters. I think this question came down to B and C for a majority of people. This has such strong language, even with the qualification of these people wanting to lose weight. Should not ask their doctor for an antidepressant drug? I could see this having more support if we knew all antidepressant drugs caused weight gain. But we only know that most cause. We have not ruled out the idea that there isn't one.

C) Is the weakest of all answer choices. Just 1 person gain weight from taking an antidepressant drug. I know that most AD cause weight gain. I know that even some prevention I can do while taking these drugs, like diet, I am still likely to gain weight. This answer choice of just 1 person having weight gain caused by an antidepressant is very weak.

D) We are given some evidence that weight gain can be caused by antidepressants themselves. This would not give us support for drawing such a claim.

E) All is a strong claim. All patients taking AD should diet to maintain weight. What if people actually wanted to gain weight?

daniformic · Answer

Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. While dieting can help reduce the amount of weight gained while taking such antidepressants, some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable.

The information above most strongly supports which one of the following?

So, antidepressant drugs cause weight gain and dieting can help reduce the amount of weight gained  but some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable  -> The conclusion could be that at least someone experiences gain weight as a result of taking such antidepressants

C. At least some patients taking antidepressant drugs gain weight as a result of taking them. ->  BINGO!

Hope it helps

VerbalBot · Answer

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Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. While dieting can help re

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