I think Dr. McCallum's points are well made. I think the reporting bias would work in favour perhaps of over-reporting of severe problems, but at the other end, you'd get very much an under-reporting of minor side effects.
One of the issues for a practising physician is how to find out what a side effect is. Again, you go to this massive tome; but it's not incredibly useful, which leads me to another point. I have a printout here on a very common stomach drug given for indigestion. It says here that the side effects may include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and flatulence, diarrhea or constipation. It can cause somnolence or insomnia. It can cause agitation and aggression or depression and hallucinations.