BackgroundPatients suffering from dementia are at risk of being treated differently by GPs from patients without it. Explanations for this could be stigmatisation, treatment with a palliative approach, and the result of the disease process. AimTo ascertain whether patients with dementia are treated differently, the index diseases of hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidaemia were used to measure care. Design of studyRetrospective matched control study. SettingGerman general practice. MethodSixteen GP practices recruited all their patients with dementia and at least one of the index diseases. Patients without dementia but only the index diseases were matched for age, sex, index disease, and practice, resulting in 216 pairs of patients with and without dementia. From the files, blood pressure, blood sugar/glycated haemoglobin, cholesterol, the dates of measurement, the number of doctor-patient contacts, and the prescribed medication to treat the three conditions under scrutiny were documented. For analysis, t-tests and χ²-tests were used.