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.
Summary
Most antidepressant drugs cause weight gain. Dieting may help lower the amount of weight gained while taking antidepressants. Despite dieting, some weight gain is unlikely to be preventable.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
Most antidepressant drugs will cause some unpreventable weight gain.
A
A physician should not prescribe any antidepressant drug for a patient if that patient is overweight.
This is unsupported because the stimulus gives us no information to answer the value statement of whether physicians should or should not prescribe antidepressants in a given circumstance.
B
People who are trying to lose weight should not ask their doctors for an antidepressant drug.
This is unsupported because the stimulus cannot help us answer the value statement of whether patients should value weight loss over however they benefit from an antidepressant drug.
C
At least some patients taking antidepressant drugs gain weight as a result of taking them.
This is strongly supported because we know that most antidepressant drugs will cause at least some unpreventable weight gain.
D
The weight gain experienced by patients taking antidepressant drugs should be attributed to lack of dieting.
This is anti-supported because the stimulus states that weight gain will occur regardless of dieting.
E
All patients taking antidepressant drugs should diet to maintain their weight.
This is unsupported because while we know that most antidepressant drugs can cause some weight gain, we don’t know that all patients on any antidepressant drugs will have weight gain. Further, we don’t know that dieting would be of any help.
Ruth: Wrong. The Kelton Company was a major mining operation that went into bankruptcy. On emerging from bankruptcy, Kelton turned its mines into landfills and is presently a highly successful waste-management concern.
A
She presents a counterexample to a claim.
B
She offers an alternative explanation for a phenomenon.
C
She supports a claim by offering a developed and relevant analogy.
D
She undermines a claim by showing that it rests on an ambiguity.
E
She establishes a conclusion by excluding the only plausible alternative to that conclusion.
Even if production costs go down, we don't know whether this will impact retail prices. Also, the CPI still measures retail price changes, which reflects the cost of living, so production cost changes are irrelevant.