Why do antipsychotics not work?

I am always told that antipsychotic drugs work for bipolar disorder but usually find out later that they do not. Why?

I sympathize with your statement. In all my years of medical training, we were always led to believe that many surgeons were unethical (besides being technically poor). Psychiatrists were held with high esteem, until recently. 

In the last two decades, it has become clear that some psychiatrists worked with pharmaceutical companies and played a major role in evaluation of most mental health medications. It was discovered that these f..kers manipulated data and only published positive results and hid the negative data. It is also widely believed that the latest DSM is a result of psychiatrists making up more fictitious diagnosis- so that they can prescribe more medications.

All I can tell you is that we really have no idea what works and what does not. Many of the past clinical trials were manipulated by these so-called great psychiatrists. My advice is seek help from a decent mental healthcare provider, who is not too keen on starting you on the latest drugs. Stick to a drug that works and do not go searching for that magic bullet-there is none.