In epiemiology, an intention to treat (ITT) analysis (sometimes also called Intent to Treat) is an analysis based on the initial treatment intent, not on the treatment eventually administered. ITT analysis is intended to avoid various misleading artifacts that can arise in intervention research. For example, if people who have a more refractory or serious problem tend to drop out at a higher rate, even a completely ineffective treatment may appear to be providing benefits if one merely compares those who finish the treatment with those who were never enrolled in it. For the purposes of ITT analysis, everyone who begins the treatment is considered to be part of the trial, whether they finish it or not.