The first edition of Analgesic Guidelines was released by VDUAC in June 1988. Chaired by Rob Moulds, the Analgesic Guidelines writing group included Dr Terence Little and Professor George Mendelson, two experts in pain management from the Royal Southern Memorial Hospital in Caulfield. Terence Little and George Mendelson would later continue their involvement for three and four editions respectively. An audit considered analgesic usage at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, St Vincent’s Hospital and Western General Hospital before and after the guidelines’ publication.

The second edition of Analgesic Guidelines in 1992 was notable for interstate involvement from New South Wales and South Australia on the writing group.

The text was influenced by a survey conducted in 1988 of pain management and analgesic use in three Victorian teaching hospitals. Project pharmacist Beverley Snell presented the methodology and findings of the study at the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia national conference, the annual Australasian Society of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacologists and Toxicologists meeting, and the World Congress on Pain in 1990. The third edition was published in 1997, the fourth in 2002, the fifth in 2007, and the sixth in 2012. Rob Moulds and Laurie Mashford each chaired three expert groups.