Maybe there hasn't been much improvement in terms of medication, but there has been great progress in the development of psychotherapies.

For instance, a few months ago I read a book called Acceptence and Commitment Therapy. This book, published recently, is pretty dense, has a lot in it, but its basic premis is that in not trying to take control of your thoughts, you'll ultimately be able to sooth your suffering. It contains, in the second half of the book, all these analogies and metaphores to enable you to just accept your thoughts, not try to overcome or change them (unlike typical cognitive therapies) and therefore your reality will be much more tolerable. Anyway, the book is a really ground-breaking piece of work.

I then read another book entitled Mindfulness and Acceptence, and it too went through all these very different types of techniques to ease profound distress -- techniques which are also rather novel in the world of psychotherapy.

So anyway, there is research being done to help mentally ill people. But I agree: Medication is probably the most important componant when it comes to treating people with schizophrenia or bipolar, and there really ought to be more work being done in that field.