Abstract:  Parental preconception exposure to addictive drugs influences not only parents themselves, but also their offsprings’ physiological function and behavior. In recent years, research shows that the epigenetic alterations play a vital role in abnormal behavior. Parental preconception exposure to addictive drugs influences the offsprings’ susceptibility to drug addiction and anxiety-like behavior, induces offsprings’ depression-like behavior and cognitive impairment. Epigenetic alterations in germ cells induced by preconception exposure to addictive drugs contribute to the onset of offsprings’ abnormal behavior through the changes of imprinted gene, BDNF, and neurotransmitter system. Future studies, besides strengthening the above three aspects research, should pay attention to other aspects of genes and to try to find the epigenetic biomarker in germ cells for the prediction of the offsprings’ abnormal behavior.

Key words: addictive drug, preconception, epigenetic, germ cell