always go to drugs, the psychologist said. Once you get a client on a lot of medications, its hard to know whats working and whats not, and its hard to get them off. The commission, which declined to comment, never took any action on the concerns brought forward by Ms. Valitutto, and she resigned. A Chronic Problem Every year, the State Health Department inspects New Yorks nine large residential facilities for the developmentally disabled. A review of 2,000 pages of inspection records found repeated violations of basic protocol for drug treatment at all of them. A resident at Bernard Fineson, a state institution in Queens that is perennially cited for violating drug administration policies, was on a drug diet of Risperdal, Ativan and the antiseizure medication Depakote, but inspectors wrote that there is no evidence of a team review regarding justification for the current medication regime. A resident at a Hudson Valley institution was on seven psychotropic drugs, along with Benadryl; inspectors worried that there was no process evident that evaluated the risks of the untreated behaviors against the risks of the medication. At an institution in Broome County, inspectors reviewing the records of several patients could not even figure out what behavioral problems were being treated with drugs like Depakote, lithium, Thorazine and Zoloft. The nonprofit facilities overseen by the state are not much better. During a recent six-year period, Living Resources, a nonprofit organization in Albany that cares for about 300 people, was cited for 11 violations related to misusing drugs to control inappropriate behavior. That is the most of any nonprofit provider in the state in that period of time, according to inspection data analyzed by The Times. We have a lot of people that we care about and care for, said Fredrick W. Erlich, the Living Resources chief executive officer, adding, We are going to make mistakes. In search of alternative approaches, state officials are now studying the practices of the ARC of Delaware County, a small nonprofit group serving the developmentally disabled in the Catskills. The group has a policy banning what they call pharmacological restraints, or the use of drugs for reasons beyond treating medical problems. Were not antimedication, but we believe people need the least amount to take the edge off so they can be available for teaching, and ultimately as they learn, those medications get reduced and eliminated, said George Suess, chief executive of the ARC of Delaware County. He added that his residents are functioning, they are learning, they are not zombied out, sitting in a corner like vegetables. A Sisters Keeper Taraneh Varghas sister was on so many psychotropic medications at her group home in the Finger Lakes region that her hands would shake, her body temperature fluctuated, her heart raced and her chest ached. She had tardive dyskinesia, a disorder characterized by involuntary repetitive movements that is common among people on high dosages of antipsychotic medications. The sisters are both Iranian-born American citizens and members of the Bahai faith, whose members have been persecuted in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in