Metabolic faults also may sometimes be corrected—for example, by the use of insulin in the treatment and control of diabetes mellitus—but more often specific therapeutic measures for idiopathic diseases are lacking. Advances in gene therapy and gene editing, however, may enable the correction of defective genes that result in disease.

When disease is produced by environmental factors, there is commonly no specific treatment; only removal of the affected individual from exposure to the agent generally allows normal detoxification responses to take over. Again, there are notable exceptions, as in the treatment of lead poisoning with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), an agent that forms complexes with lead that are then excreted by the kidney.