Abstract: The present invention relates to methods for diagnosis of susceptibility to alcoholism or the pathological effects of alcoholism based on detection of a genetic marker in an individual. The present invention is directed generally to methods and associated compositions and kits for detecting the presence of arylsulfatase A (ASA) pseudodeficiency (PD) mutations in humans. Detection of these mutations has been surprisingly found to be a strong indicator for susceptibility to alcoholism and/or susceptibility to alcohol's pathological effects, as well as an important marker in evaluating the likelihood of metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD).