Marjorie Bontempo was a changed woman after moving into Life Care Center of Nashoba Valley, a Littleton nursing home where the staff doesn’t believe in using antipsychotic drugs simply to calm residents. A physician had prescribed an antipsychotic for Bontempo a year earlier, after Alzheimer’s disease had transformed her from an accomplished seamstress and demure family peacekeeper into a cantankerous, confused woman who refused to eat.

The Center for Medicare Advocacy issued a statement last week saying that huge savings in nursing facility costs, and advances in resident care, could be achieved if facilities eliminated the inappropriate use of antipsychotic drugs and provided sufficient staff to meet resident needs.

“Hundreds of thousands of residents receive antipsychotic drugs each day in nursing homes across the country, even though these drugs are inappropriate and life-threatening for the vast majority of residents to whom they are given.” said Toby S. Edelman, Senior Policy Attorney with the Center’s Washington, DC office.