The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral, cognitive, or emotion

Question

The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral, cognitive, or emotional problems. Some patients with mental disorders can be effectively treated with psychotherapy. But it is now known that in some patients mental disorders result from chemical imbalances affecting the brain. Thus these patients can be effectively treated only with medication that will reduce or correct the imbalance.

The argument depends on assuming which one of the following?

(A) Treatment by psychotherapy can produce no effective reduction in or correction of chemical imbalances that cause mental disorders.

(B) Treatment with medication always shows faster results for patients with mental disorders than does treatment with psychotherapy.

(C) Most mental disorders are not the result of chemical imbalances affecting the brain.

(D) Medication is always more effective in treating patients with mental disorders than is psychotherapy.

(E) Treatment with psychotherapy has no effect on mental disorders other than a reduction of the symptoms.

asandeep · Answer

A.

If A is negated - psychotherapy can also produce 
effective reduction in or correction of chemical, then medication is no more effective than psychotherapy.
Nothing is given about the relative speed of recovery about the two.

Official ans ?

mohnish104 · Answer

Yep the answer is clearly A because it mentions the chemical imbalance aspect of mental disorders. The rest are mere generalizations.

auradediligodo · Answer

Pre-thinking

The argument gives us information on how to treat mental disorders. In  some  cases psychotherapy is effective  but  when mental disorder is caused by chemical imbalances the  only way  to cure such disorders is medication.

Falsification scenario  : What if psychotherapy can cure mental disorders caused by chemical imbalance? Clearly under these conditions the argument would break.
  Assumption  : Psychotherapy cannot cure mental disorders related to chemical imbalances.

POE

We can promptly see that   Option A   matches our pre-thought assumption. Hence this statement is correct.
  Options B, C, D, E   are either extreme or irrelevant

skepticlawinter · Answer

Is (A) really needed as an assumption?

My understanding of the statement is that "Psychotherapy can treat mental disorders. Also, some mental disorders result from chemical imbalances in brain, and medication can correct the imbalance."

Even if (A) does not stand, we can still defend the statement above.

ArupRS · Answer

Your understanding lacks one important point. it is not that medication can cure the imbalance but rather the medication is the only way to treat those imbalances.

It means psychotherapy doesn't reduce/correct the imbalances.

Regards,
Arup

RICHA1189 · Answer

(A) Treatment by psychotherapy can produce no effective reduction in or correction of chemical imbalances that cause mental disorders.

If we negate A , the conclusion will be shattered.

Negated statement A - Treatment by psychotherapy can produce effective reduction in or correction of chemical imbalances that cause mental disorders.

If the above statement is true , conclusion will fall apart

harshitapvt6658 · Answer

pls explain why r we eliminating other options

IMPROVING · Answer

Plz explain negation technique and assumption, conclusion relationship

The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral, cognitive, or emotion

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

The symptoms of mental disorders are behavioral, cognitive, or emotion

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