Your concern about having a problem with continued access to an opioid is well founded. Many of us who take them on a regular basis have to struggle to maintain access, either from our doctors or our pharmacies. And the problems appear to still be getting worse as the media, the politicians and the government regulators continue to fan the flames while ignoring those of us with really need these valuable medications.
However, your concerns about addiction may be greater than need be. In the recent paper about the proper use of opioids to treat RLS, the combined experts wrote a section that included this statement:
In a study of nationwide US medical and pharmacy claims to Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance companies in 2015, the rate of opioid use disorder (addiction) in patients taking low-dose opioids for more than 90 days was 6/1000 patients, compared with 40/1000 patients using high-dose opioids, an almost 7 times lower frequency. Low-dose opioids were defined as less than 100 mg morphine or equivalent per day, an upper limit far higher than that recommended for RLS, suggesting that the rate of opioid use disorder in patients with RLS may be even lower.
This does not mean that the risk of addition when using an opioid to treat RLS does not exist, but this would indicate that the risk is far less than what the media and politicians would have you believe. There is even a statement in the paper where they discuss using opioids to treat individuals who are known to have addiction problems where they state that although a bit more challenging, even this can be accomplished if done correctly.
