In 1988, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs held its first organizational meeting for the National Center for PTSD. At that meeting, it was recognized that few PTSD interviews were available, although nearly a decade had passed since PTSD was formally recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). From this meeting, a multisite team of researchers from the National Center for PTSD began developing and field-testing a structured, multidimensional PTSD diagnostic interview that would eventually become the CAPS.