Background and purpose: Psychological factors play a major role in causing and aggravating medical conditions. This study aimed at cognitive emotion regulation strategies and psychological distress in patients with AIDS and normal individuals.

Materials and methods: A causal comparative study was performed in which two groups of AIDS patients and normal individuals (n= 43 per group) enrolled. The participants were selected using purposive sampling. The scale of depression, anxiety, stress (DASS21) and the short form of cognitive emotion regulation (CERQ-P (was used. Data was analyzed in SPSS applying one-way ANOVA.

Results: Compared with normal individuals, people with AIDS used higher levels of maladaptive strategies and to a lesser extent used adaptive strategies (P<0.01), they also had higher levels of anxiety, depression and stress (P<0.01).

Conclusion: Maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation in patients with AIDS leads to severe psychological problems. Also, high levels of psychological distress in these patients could intensify the course of disease, cause low response to treatment and increase the risk of suicide, therefore, psychological interventions alongside medical interventions are required to reduce these problems.