Double blindedness in a fully remote trial We are planning to do a fully remote clinical trial to test an online intervention for depression. We will be using a self-rated PHQ-9 at base-line, post intervention, and 90 days follow-up to test the efficacy of the intervention.

The participants wouldn't know if they are assigned to the experimental or the control group (so it is definitely single-blind). Since there is no investigator who will be assessing the depression severity, there is no source of any human bias there (since double-blind trials are designed to eliminate investigator bias). 

I was wondering if this can be called a double-blind study. I have seen other fully remote trials with a similar design but they haven't mentioned the term double-blind anywhere. Considering the fact that it is the gold standard, I am surprised that investigators did not mention it in their paper. That is the source of my confusion.

Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Double blind basically consists when the patient does not know to which condition it belongs (control, treatment A, treatment B) and the professional does not know to which group he/she is administering the treatment (control, treatment A, treatment B).

The double-blind designation is not based on the fact that the initial level of depression is not assessed. (I guess you know it and it has been erroneously specified in the question).

In online studies this denomination is not usually used although of course it is not incompatible. (The issue is that this denomination is not usually used because the trial is not common either).

In short I do not see problem with the double blind designation.

On the other hand, it would be necessary to pay close attention to the clinical level and the characteristics of the intervention (you do not specify, is the intervention also remote?).

In any case sounds very interesting.