ARGUMENT188 =August Rush=小组 by KevinSpacey

KevinSpaceyUID: 2645771

TOPIC: ARGUMENT188
A new report suggests that men and women experience pain very differently from one another, and that doctors should consider these differences when prescribing pain medications. When researchers administered the same dosage of kappa opioids-a painkiller-to 28 men and 20 women who were having their wisdom teeth extracted, the women reported feeling much less pain than the men, and the easing of pain lasted considerably longer in women. This research suggests that kappa opioids should be prescribed for women whenever pain medication is required, whereas men should be given other kinds of pain medication. In addition, researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women.

KevinSpaceyUID: 2645771

这篇写的巨恶心，中途居然睡着了。实在不想看它了，隔两天再改吧。

WORDS: 469
TIME: 01:05:15

DATE: 2009/8/8 21:32:14

By providing a result of a medical research, the arguer draws two conclusions about the usage of kappa opioids and the medication reevaluating. They seem at first glance to be obvious conclusions. However, the reasoning is based on some faulty premises and invalid assumptions.

It is mentioned in the argument that according to a research about wisdom teeth extracting pain of 28 men and 20 women, the researchers report that men and women experience pain very differently from one another. Yet, this research is no indication of the report. There are only 48 people attending to the research which makes the result less convincing. In order to reflect the objective situation, it should exam at least 200 people of which half are women and half are men. Furthermore, the research would be more convincing if it studies some other kinds of pains such as headache, stomachache, etc. It should also provide more detail information. For example, do all the 20 women report feeling less pain than men? If not, what about the proportion of those women who do not feel much less pain among 20? Thus, by studying 48 people of their wisdom teeth pain, this research cannot comprehensively reflect the pain experience differences between men and women.

The argument also does not differentiate the dental pain with other kinds of pains. The conclusion that kappa opioids should be prescribed for women whenever pain medication is required whereas men should be given other kinds of pain medication suggest that it is presumed that if one medicine is effective for one kind of pain, it will be effective for others, and vice versa. This is certainly not the case. There is no evidence to support this assumption. Every medicine aims at only a few specific diseases. It is entirely possible that kappa opioids are effective for men's headache but useless for that of women's. Thus, the arguer should not generalize the effect of kappa opioids for dental pain to all pains.

Even assuming that men and women do have different experience of pains, the conclusion that researchers should reevaluate the effects of all medications on men versus women seems unnecessary. Medication is used for not only alleviating the pain of people, but also killing bacteria, bringing down the fever, etc. Painkillers are just small proportion of them. Other kinds of medicine do not need to be reevaluated. If reevaluate all medications, it will cost the government a large amount of money and waste time.

To sum up, the conclusion lacks credibility because the research cited in the argument does not lend strong support to what the arguer maintains. The two assumptions are also invalid. To strengthen the argument, the arguer should provide more details of the research or rework with a large number of sample volunteers. To better assess the argument, we would also need more information about the relationship of dental pain with other kinds of pains and that of painkiller with other kinds of medication.