The length of time children have to wait to access specialist psychiatric services in the State has been described as "tragic" by an expert in child psychiatry.
Prof Michael Fitzgerald, professor of child psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin, said that at present children could expect to wait between six and 18 months to be seen by a specialist.
"The waiting list is tragic. There are huge waiting lists. It could be six months, it could be a year, it could be 18 months to see anybody in the child psychiatry department," he said.
"That is the biggest problem at the moment and that is a matter of absolutely huge concern.
"A child with autism can't wait two weeks. If the child has autism, you need to intervene. You need to deal with it now. They can't wait two weeks, not to speak of 18 months, before they are seen, before they get a diagnosis.
"That is the central and most worrying thing, and the parents are massively stressed because they are waiting 18 months to be seen and they are lost, and there's a window of opportunity of early intervention that's lost for 18 months," he added.
Prof Fitzgerald was speaking to The Irish Times yesterday after addressing the Lucena Clinic 50th anniversary conference on child and adolescent psychiatry at St John of God Hospital in Stillorgan, Dublin.
Meanwhile, he said, depression among adults and children had increased since the second World War. "We are speculating that something in modern life must be increasing it . . . Maybe it's family breakdown and a more mobile society and a more fragmented society."
However, there had been no real increase in the incidence of autism in the community, Prof Fitzgerald said. What there had been was a "massive increase" in the diagnosis of the condition. "It's purely that we are identifying it," he added.
He urgent parents concerned about children showing symptoms of depression or behavioural disorders not to listen to people who told them not to worry, that they would grow out of it.
That was a dangerous thing to do, he said. They should seek professional advice early as the earlier cases were diagnosed the more likely a child would have a better prognosis.
"There are much more effective treatments now than there were 15 to 20 years ago and if a parent has a concern about a child, they should go and get it checked out. Don't wait and see . . . it's much harder to treat them when they're older," he said.
Prof Fiona McNicholas, of the Lucena Clinic, said waiting lists were a serious problem. "The services have developed hugely over the last 50 years, but there's still an awful long way to go.
"Children are certainly waiting in the months for an appointment . . . some could wait a year. The trouble is that we are dealing with emergency cases, so we are seeing children who present being suicidal or maybe psychotic. All those children are being seen immediately, but those that are referred for what's perceived as more moderate problems are left on the waiting list, and every time an emergency comes in they are pushed further down the list," she said.
Prof Carol Fitzpatrick, professor of child psychiatry at the Mater hospital, Dublin, said depressive disorders occur in 1½ to 2 per cent of children and in about 5 per cent of adolescents, and this was the same in all developed countries. Studies suggested the rates were increasing.
Prof Fitzpatrick said waiting lists for services varied in different regions. If parents were worried about a child, she said, their first port of call should be their GP.