Yes, as I understand it, Aricept slows the onset of the symptoms - it does not slow the actual progession of the disease itself, but can help to prevent some of these symptoms.
From what I gather: loss of nerve cells in the brain causes a deficit of a chemical called acetylcholine - a chemical thought help messages be carried from cell to cell in the brain. Aricept prevents the natural process which causes this chemical to be broken down, the effect being to increase the amount present.
But as more and more cells are lost, the levels fall again. I assume they can't just keep giving you higher doses of Aricept because you'd overdose on it.
From what I was told, patients do reach a level at which Aricept no longer offers any benefit - at that point they do a "drug holiday" (stop it for a month) to see if you get worse without it. If there's no effect, no point in taking it.
I was also told that some people do not benefit from it anyway. Plus, Aricept does not usually help with short-term memory, but is likely to help with confusion and time sense. This is obvious in my Dad who before treatment would mix up morning and evening, which he has not done since.
I am not a doctor but that's how I understand it to work.
AD varies so much from person to person. Our Memory Nurse has one patient whose score has not changed for six years!
I think the short-term remembering of the three things is one of the first tests people fail. Short term memory is usually the first to fail, most people report to doctors with "memory problems"
That was the case with us, now we look back over the last few years. We went to the GP when the confusion set in.