Evidence-appraisal glossary
Treatment-Policy Estimand
A way of defining a trial's target question that counts every patient's outcome regardless of what they did after assignment, including stopping the drug. It is the estimand that most closely matches a classic intention-to-treat analysis.
Also called: treatment policy strategy.
Under the treatment-policy strategy, intercurrent events like discontinuing treatment are treated as part of the real effect of being assigned the strategy, not as something to remove. This captures how a treatment performs under actual use, but it can dilute the apparent benefit of a drug that many patients quit. Comparing it against a hypothetical estimand, which asks what would happen if everyone stayed on treatment, shows how far the two questions can diverge.
This is a plain-language methodology definition for reading research. It is general education, not medical advice.