Bipolar disorder (BD) is a neuropsychiatric illness characterized by cycles of high and low mood states. The pathophysiology of BD is not fully understood but studies show mitochondrial dysfunction may play a role. Our objective is to interrogate the link between mitochondrial dysfunction and BD using patient blood samples. We observe an increase in serum lactate and a positive correlation between lactate and circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA (ccf-mtDNA) in BD. Our meta-analysis found elevated ccf-mtDNA in patients with psychiatric conditions, suggesting evidence of mitochondrial stress. We reprogram patient blood cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) that are capable in differentiating into neural progenitor cells and we show exploratory work differentiating these into cortical neurons that will be used to investigate the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in BD. We highlight our findings in support of mitochondrial dysfunction in BD and a future direction in understanding BD using these iPSCs.