PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 4
Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain.(22 more words not shown)
The information above most strongly(6 more words not shown)
- AA physician should(13 more words not shown)
- BPeople who are(13 more words not shown)
- CAt least some(12 more words not shown)
- DThe weight gain(13 more words not shown)
- EAll patients taking(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A claim about most drugs isn't a claim about every patient.
The passage gives us a general fact about most antidepressant drugs, but we should be careful about applying it to a particular drug or every person taking one. It also says dieting can reduce the amount gained without making all weight gain likely to be preventable. Reducing an effect and eliminating it aren't the same.
What we’re looking for
I might wonder how the weight gain happens, but the passage doesn't answer that. For this question, we accept the supplied information and look for what it most strongly supports. My prediction is modest: at least some people taking these drugs gain weight because of them. That is a statement about an effect, not yet a decision about what treatment someone should choose.
Working the answers
- A
A possible side effect doesn't settle whether a physician should prescribe a treatment. Other health needs might outweigh that concern, and the passage doesn't give us a rule for weighing them. It also says most antidepressants cause weight gain, not that every available drug must do so. A's blanket prescribing restriction goes beyond the information.
- B
Wanting to lose weight needn't be a person's only health concern. The passage doesn't show that this goal should always prevent someone from asking about treatment for depression. B turns a fact about a possible side effect into advice about what people should request, without providing the additional basis for that advice.
- CCorrect
At least some patients gain weight as a result of taking antidepressants. That fits both the statement that most such drugs cause weight gain and the warning that some gain is unlikely to be preventable.
We don't need to decide how many patients experience it or which particular drugs they take. “Some” makes the limited claim the facts support. It doesn't turn most drugs into all drugs or into a claim about most patients.
- D
Dieting can reduce the amount gained, but that doesn't establish that a failure to diet caused the gain. The passage attributes weight gain to the drugs and says some is unlikely to be preventable even with dieting. D supplies an explanation about patients' behavior that we haven't been given.
- E
We aren't told that every patient needs or should follow this recommendation. Some may not take a drug that causes weight gain, and the passage doesn't establish that preventing gain is an appropriate goal for everyone. E adds a universal instruction to information that only describes effects and limits.
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