All-cause mortality is a pretty common way to look at “side-effects”, especially when it is not clear exactly what they might be. These do need to be interpret

All-cause mortality is a pretty common way to look at “side-effects”, especially when it is not clear exactly what they might be. These do need to be interpreted carefully though, lest you end up concluding that a drug increases your odds of getting into a car crash or something. There could be a causal link—maybe the drug causes drowsiness or affects vision—but it could also be noise....5% of the time happens 5% of the time, after all!