insane amount of escaping in regex patterns

[Louis-David Mitterrand]

While adjusting some scoring rules in my .muttrc I noticed the
incredible amount of escaping one has to do for simple regex patterns:

        folder-hook =[a-z] score ~s'(\\\\[OT\\\\]\\|newbie\\|(un)?subscribe\\|your\\\ 
mail\\|unidentified\\\ suject)' -10

Notice the three (3) backticks to escape one \[ 

        folder-hook =modperl score ~s'\\\\<ASP\\\\>' -10

same thing to escape a \< (non-word)

I tried adding some "" around the score statements to no avail. Is there
a way to reduce the amount of escaping to obtain more readable patterns?

TIA

-- 
    PHEDRE: OENONE, seule.
            Ah, Dieux ! pour la servir j'ai tout fait, tout quitté ;
                                          (Phèdre, J-B Racine, acte 4, scène 6)